The Hunter Was Hunted

Paul, who would never forget this incredible experience, refers to salvation as a relationship and encounter with the truth of the gospel. He says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. What is the gospel? It is the good news that Jesus Christ came to earth, he lived, he died, he rose from the dead, and now he offers his death on the cross as a pardon for everyone who will say, I need your work alone.

Period. The Apostle Paul's love for the gospel was evident, but it wasn't always the case in his life. That God would save anyone is amazing, but that he would save someone like Paul is particularly remarkable. In fact, Paul's conversion might be the greatest reversal in human history. God changed Paul from the church's greatest persecutor to the church's greatest preacher. That was a mystery that Paul never quite got over. Today on this broadcast from our Vintage Wisdom Library, Stephen Davey takes us to the Book of Acts and looks at the conversion of Paul. Perhaps you can remember the surprise of a friend or two, maybe a family member when they learned you had become a Christian. Maybe some of you have had people say to you, you have become one of those?

Not you. Maybe you won the distinction in your class as being the one most likely to end up in jail or something like that. In the Book of Action in chapter 9, the lens of scripture will begin to focus on the story of a young man that would be a shock to the believing world to have ever considered that he could become a Christian. It is a young, zealous Pharisee named Saul. We know him in fact better as Paul, and I'll use the word names interchangeably, but he had been sent to Jerusalem, extra biblical sources tell us, as a young boy to live with his married sister.

He had moved to Jerusalem so that he could have the distinct privilege of being tutored by the most brilliant teacher of his day, the Hebrew Pharisee named Gamaliel. If you turn in your Bibles first to chapter 5 of the Book of Acts, you will hear Saul's teacher. He will be swaying the Sanhedrin with his brilliant logic, logic that would prove prophetic to young Saul, but the apostles are standing before the high court of Israel, the Sanhedrin, and Gamaliel is speaking. Verse 38, he speaks to his fellow court members, and so in the present case, I say to you, stay away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or action should be of men, it will be overthrown, but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them or else you may even be found fighting against God, and I wonder if those words came back to haunt Saul later.

Verse 40 tells us that they took his advice. Now evidently, from that verse of scripture to the passage that we are about to study, Saul and Gamaliel parted ways, and I imagine there were some rather heated discussions in their parting. Gamaliel was convinced that the apostles and the early church should be left alone. Paul was convinced that Christianity could not be tolerated. He was convinced that Christianity correctly convinced that it was indeed a threat to Judaism, that the Christians should be exterminated and this Christianity should be stamped out, and so they parted ways. Now if you turn ahead to chapter 8, you may remember when we were first introduced to Saul, Stephen is in the process of being stoned to death for his faith in Christ, and you notice in verse 1 that we're finally given an introduction to this man. Saul, it says, was in hearty agreement with putting him to death, and on that day, that is on the day that Stephen died, on that day a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem, and they were scattered throughout. Now this verse in chapter 8 implies what chapter 9 will confirm, that Paul is the leader of this Jerusalem Holocaust. It is at his doing that the church has scattered from Jerusalem.

This is the hunter, the dreaded hunter of Christians, and I don't believe anybody in the history of the church would have ever shocked anyone for having come to faith in Christ than this man who would be guilty of the deaths and imprisonments of hundreds, if not thousands of believers. And so, before Luke tells us that part of the story about his conversion, he opens the first paragraph of chapter 9 with dramatic, sort of on the edge of your seat vocabulary. Look at chapter 9 verse 1 as Saul's biography opens. Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest. Now that word translated breathing in verse 1 was a Greek word commonly used of battle stallions who are snorting breath from their nostrils as they anticipate the charge in battle.

That's the common use of that word. A.T. Robertson in his word pictures of the New Testament wrote that threatening and slaughter had come to be the very breath of Saul as he breathed like a war horse, the smell of battle. Now, to this man, the battle was against Christianity. For him, the battle was defending the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. He felt that he was serving his God by stamping out the believer, the believer that followed this executed imposter, at least so he thought. John Pollock writes with dramatic verbiage, Saul charged like an animal tearing its prey. This was not the satefficiency of an officer obeying distasteful orders.

His heart was engaged. Every suspect, man or woman, had to stand before the elders while Saul, as the high priest's representative, put to them the demand that they should curse Jesus. He threw them into dungeons.

The majority were punished by public flogging. It was not a sight for the squeamish. And Saul remained unmoved as men and women staggered away with backs a mass of blood. This is the dreaded hunter of the early Christian. His name was Saul.

Now let's read further. He went to the high priest and asked for letters from him to the synagogues so that if he found anyone belonging to the way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now the phrase the way was the earliest designation for Christians. It was coined by the believers who followed the teacher who claimed to be the way, the truth, and the life. It isn't until chapter 11 of this book that they are first called at Antioch by the term Christian. Now, unfortunately, the way today are those who claim to be in the way deny the deity of Christ. Well, these who believed in his deity were called at this point in time members of the way. So this hunter of wayward Jews has been sent with direct approval and commendation from the high priest. And we know that this is Caiaphas. Caiaphas was that old snake who condemned Jesus to be crucified.

He was the one that ordered that Peter and John would be flogged along with the other apostles. He gives permission with, I am sure, great delight to this zealous, young, brilliant Pharisee named Saul to go and capture as many as he can and bring them back to Jerusalem in chains to face torture and imprisonment and even potential death. If you were a Christian living in this day, you would be feeling a mixture of courage and yet great fear. Courage because the Bible tells us that as they scattered, they went sharing the news and yet fear that this hunter had maybe picked up your trail. See, we rush too quickly, I think, into the ends of these stories, and we don't climb into the scene and think and feel what it must have been like to be like one of them.

There are those today who do. This past week I read with some emotion the stories that are beginning to leak out of the largest country in Africa, out of Sudan. Christians are being crucified in the hills of Sudan. The Muslim government has recently unleashed a unique form of persecution. If you name the name of Christ, you forfeit all personal rights and you can be sold into slavery.

For $15, you can buy a Christian in Sudan. I imagine that there are hunters in the regions of this African country whose names are known and feared. I happen to believe that in Palestine the name of the hunter that was feared by the believers was Saul. And I know that name filled them with fear because later on in the chapter, even after they've heard the story that Saul has come to faith in Christ, the text tells us they will not allow him into their fellowship because they are afraid. These are not some kind of super Christians.

They would be experiencing everything you would be were you in their sandals. Lord, I will take courage to name your name, but I am afraid. We're about to discover that the hunter was in the process of being hunted. The one who thought he was going to Damascus to capture the saints of God is about to be captured by the Savior. Notice verse 3. And it came about that as he journeyed, he was approaching Damascus.

This was about a five, six day journey. And suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. Now another passage will tell us that this occurred at high noon, meaning that this light outshone the noonday sky. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul will tell us that he actually saw the resurrected Christ like Stephen as he was being stoned to death. Saul would see the resurrected one, the Lord of heaven. He would never forget it. But for now, that sight was the shock of his life. Suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him, verse 4, and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

Can you imagine this? Saul's mind immediately is racing, persecuting you, the Lord of heaven, God? I'm not persecuting you. I thought by condemning to death, by torturing, by bringing to prison these followers of that imposter that I was serving you, not persecuting you. Those words sent his mind, I'm sure, reeling. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Now comes the startling insight. And he said, who art thou, Lord, as if to say, surely you're not related to these wayward runaway Jews, but let me know for certain, Lord of heaven, identify clearly yourself. Who are you? And he said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

Can you imagine? His blood must have frozen. It was all true. This Jesus of Nazareth who was beaten and crucified, who was buried, really was the Messiah. He really had come back to life again.

He really was the way, the truth, the life. Imagine the dawning revelation to Saul. This means that Stephen, whose death I approved with relish, was an innocent man. This means that all the homes that I have ripped apart, all of the men and women that I have seen flogged, all those I've carted away in chains and imprisoned, all of them were innocent. Imagine discovering that he had been fighting against the Lord of heaven, who was none other than the Jesus, the Yeshua, whose name he had come to hate. I want you to turn over to another account of this testimony. There are three accounts, and we'll look at all three briefly. Turn to Acts 22. What happened next?

Well, we're given an interesting piece to the account. Look at verse 8, and I answered, who art thou, Lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus the Nazarene.

Another verse tells us he was speaking in the Hebrew language, so would have been Yeshua. I am Yeshua the Nazarene, as it were, whom you are persecuting. And those who were with me beheld the light, to be sure, but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me.

Now, here's this extra phrase. And I said, what shall I do, Lord? Not, what shall I do, Jesus of Nazareth? But as an act of acceptance, and I believe the moment of salvation for him was after he had the identification of this magnificent resurrected Lord of Heaven. He doesn't turn on his heel and walk away in disgust, refusing to hold to his Judaism. He says in submission, what do you want me to do, Lord?

He had, at this moment, the great hunter been captured by the divine hunter of Heaven. I want to encourage you to elevate your vocabulary of him. It's interesting that while the name of Jesus is indeed highly significant, there is no other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. It's interesting as you read the Epistles as they age, as God's revelation continues, that these men always attach to Jesus a title, Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus. In fact, never once in the Epistles of Peter do you ever hear the name Jesus alone.

It's always our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Never does Jude refer to him as his name. Never does James. In John's three Epistles, never once do you read the name of Jesus alone. In fact, in Paul's Epistles, he will write 13. If you think he wrote Hebrews, that's 14. But in those 13, he refers to that resurrected one more than 200, nearly 250 times, and he refers to him with the word or name Jesus alone on an average of one time per book. What's going on?

What's happened to these men? Well, first of all, Yeshua would be a common name for Jewish boys, named after their Old Testament hero, Joshua, hoping that their boy would grow up to be a leader among the people. Well, Jesus, the Jesus that we know and worship, was more than a hope. He was indeed the leader of Israel.

He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. And when they referred to this magnificent one, they attached to his name his titles of deity and messiahship. I think we have a trivial way of speaking of him today.

I think we can learn much from this example. In fact, I think one of the classic expressions of Paul's heart, one of those few times when he used the name alone, is in Philippians chapter 2, where he says that the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. He never got over this. All that all men would call Yeshua, Lord. Lord, what do you want me to do now? Turn ahead to chapter 26, where we have the details of what the Lord told him. Here Paul is giving his testimony to King Agrippa.

We discover more details concerning what Christ told Paul on that Damascus road. Look at verse 15. And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. Verse 16. But arise and stand on your feet. For this purpose I have appeared to you to appoint you a minister and a witness, not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you, delivering you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you.

Why? To open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to the dominion of God, in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in me. Wow, what a commission here. The one who hunted Christians is now commissioned to hunt for those who are not Christians.

Only no change this time. No arms twisted, no interrogations. But the one who with great zeal pursued those who named the name of Christ, he is to now with greater zeal than ever go after those who do not know this wonderful Savior Jesus Christ. And by the way, here is a rather insightful caricature of our society that we are living in. Did you notice the way unbelievers are described? We need to open their eyes.

Why? Because they are in darkness. They need to be opened or turned to the light. They belong to the dominion, the realm, the authority of Satan. And we need to share the gospel so that we can introduce them to the realm, the authority, the dominion of God. Now for the next three days, Saul is not going to be able to see anything. In fact, turn back to chapter 9 again and notice verse 8. And Saul got up from the ground and though his eyes were opened, he could see nothing. And leading him by the hand, they brought him to Damascus.

Now stop and imagine this scene here. Here's the great and terrible Saul, the feared hunter of Christians who had planned to ride into Damascus with authority and power. Let all, he would think, who claimed the Nazarene, tremble. Now look, he is being led by the hand, a humbled, broken man, blind, under the curious stares of all the inhabitants of that city and especially the stares and the wonderings of the Christians. And he was there three days, verse 9, without sight and neither ate nor drank. Now we don't read anywhere where Saul was commanded not to eat or drink. But if you were him, could you?

I doubt it. In some room with no one there to help him, it would be three days before this brother will come and we'll study him in our next discussion. The last blinding sight he had was of the resurrected Lord. And the truth had invaded his life and you can only imagine he mourned his past, he mourned his evil.

He, the director of such torture and death, must have wept bitter tears. He's waiting here. He's been told he'll receive some instruction later but for now he waits, not knowing if perhaps he'll ever see again.

In the dark he waits. The life and career of this proud, brilliant, zealous man has crashed around him into a thousand pieces. Ladies and gentlemen, everything he has believed is wrong. Every stand he has taken has not been for God even though he thought it was. Everyone he had wronged had been right.

Everything he had been standing for was a lie. Can you imagine those three days? Can we personalize at least two thoughts from this Damascus encounter? What can we learn for our lives today? Two things.

Number one, don't ever underestimate the power of simple truth. Perhaps you're intimidated by that one at work that thinks all the Christians are foolish people who just need a crutch. The one who swears with the Lord's name.

The one who belligerently shouts down any thought or attempt at religious people. And maybe the last person you would ever approach would be that kind of individual. Maybe it's a relative. Maybe it's someone across the hall.

Maybe it's a business associate. And you think, well, before I ever take on that person, I'd better have my apologetics down just real fast, you know? I need to memorize the concordance before I take on that kind of person. The thing that moved Paul and the thing that moves people is not our brilliant arguments, although I fear our arguments could be better. It is the simple truth that Yeshua is indeed the risen Lord of lords.

It is the simple truth. In fact, Paul, who would never forget, would never forget this incredible experience. Yet when he talks in his epistles about salvation, he talks about salvation not as an encounter with something miraculous, some vision.

Some Damascus wrote experience. He refers to salvation as a relationship and encounter with the truth of the gospel. He says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. What is the gospel? It is the good news that Jesus Christ came to earth, he lived, he died, he rose from the dead, and now he offers his death on the cross as a pardon for everyone who will say I need your work alone for my sin, period.

It's that simple. Spurgeon, who was a great orator, said a century ago to some of his students near the end of his life, he said, the older I've become, the more simple the truth of the Bible has become. It is simply this, Jesus Christ died for me.

Do you know what those people need to hear? This seems so belligerent, is that Jesus Christ loves and died for them. Don't ever underestimate the power of that saving truth.

Secondly, don't ever underestimate the reach of God's grace. To the church, have you ever thought about the fact, at least these early believers, that Paul would have never been a candidate for potential salvation? I don't think the church ever put Saul on their prayer list.

Not him. But God's grace would reach even him. And we get a little carried away, as rightly so we should, with the fact that he is the apostle Paul. We forget that at one point in time he was the great hunter, the persecutor, the blasphemer, although he thought he was honoring God. Don't ever underestimate the reach of God's grace, like to John Newton, the slave trader who later confessed Christ and wrote that hymn that we often sing, amazing grace, how sweet the sound, you know that great hymn that saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now I'm found was blind. But now I see he never got over that God's grace could reach him. He lived and served, by the way, the Lord for many years. And as an aged pastor, he once told his congregation, there are three wonders about heaven to me. The first wonder, John Newton said, will be the number of people who are there that I did not expect to see.

The second wonder will be the number of people who aren't there that I expected to see. He said, but the third and greatest wonder will be that I am there. I want you to close your Bibles and just listen to the testimony of the Apostle Paul as he is writing to his young son in the faith. This is the second to the last book that he will write before he is executed by Nero's executioner. He is writing from a prison cell, an aged man with many believe, very poor eyesight.

Some believe that this experience decades earlier affected him permanently with a sight disorder. But he is writing to his son and in this testimony to his son in the faith, that is, he is rather transparent and it's one of those glimpses into his personal feelings and emotions. And it's obvious from reading this that he never, ever forgot his days as the old Saul, as I'm sure you haven't forgotten yourself before the grace of God reached you. Listen to how he writes, Timothy, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor, yet I was shown mercy. I acted ignorantly in unbelief and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am chief. And yet for this reason, I found mercy in order that in me as chief of sinners, Jesus Christ might demonstrate his perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in him for eternal life. That's another way of saying, Timothy, if God can save me, I know he can save anybody. And he closes his paragraph by saying of his Lord Christ, now to the king, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God be honor and glory forever and ever.

Amen. Salvation that God offered and brought to you is just as much a miracle as the salvation of Paul. If you joined us late, you've tuned in to wisdom for the heart. Our teacher, Stephen Davey has a resource you can use to share the message of the gospel with others. We call it God's wisdom for your heart. You'll find it at wisdomonline.org forward slash gospel. Call 866 48 Bible for information about that resource. We'll continue through Acts next time. So join us on wisdom for the heart. We'll see you next time.