Dramatic Moments in Scripture: The Damascus Road

It was Thursday night. It was about, actually it was Friday morning. It was about 12.15 in the morning and my cell phone rang.

I didn't know the gentleman on the other end of the line. But he said, I need religion. True.

I was curious about how he got my cell phone number. I said, did you call Joshua's Way? Because if you call the Joshua's Way office, if I'm not there, I leave my cell phone number on the answering machine, and you can call it. He said, I've never heard of Joshua's Way. No, I didn't call Joshua's Way.

I said, how did you get my number? He said, it was in the phone book. My cell phone number is not in the phone book. And he said, I need religion. began to talk with him. He said, I know it's late, he said, but there's been so much in my life that is not good, that is not right. And he began to talk with me about that and I began to ask him some questions about himself and his background and so forth and a very unusual conversation. And he said, I just don't know what to do. I said, well, let me answer is Jesus Christ. And you need not wait any longer. If you want to deal with what's in the past, you can deal with it right now. Christ will forgive no matter what you have done because he kept saying there's no way that God would ever let me have a relationship with him. I said, yes, he will through Jesus Christ. He will give you forgiveness. You can inherit eternal life right now. You need not wait any longer. And he said, well, I'm ready.

I'm ready. I said, well, if you're ready, we can pray over the phone right now for you to receive Christ. But let me tell you one thing before you pray.

Receiving Christ is receiving Christ as Lord. It's more than just saying words. It's more than just wanting eternal life and saying abracadabra. I want eternal life. Eternal life comes when we bend the knee.

when we commit ourselves to Jesus Christ as our Lord. It's not just talking. It's a commitment of our lives to Jesus Christ as Lord. So it's no longer our way. It's his way.

It's no longer us in charge of our lives. He is now in charge as Lord and Master. If we truly want to inherit eternal life, we must make that commitment.

And I'll tell you what he did just a minute. What he did after I told him that. But if you have your Bibles, let's turn to Acts chapter 9. Where we look at the last of our dramatic moments that we've been studying. And we're going to look at the conversion and call of the Apostle Paul.

So if you have your Bibles, Acts 9, let's read the first eight verses together.

Here's what it says. Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus so that if he found any there who belonged to the way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?

Who are you, Lord? Saul asked. I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, he replied. Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do. The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless. They heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes, he could see nothing. It is probably one of the most dramatic moments in the history of the Christian faith, the conversion and call of the apostle we now know as Paul.

What do we know about this guy who we call Saul or Paul before the Damascus Road? Let me just give you some quick background on him so you'll be familiar with who he is. His hometown was a town called Tarsus in the Roman province of Cilicia. Cilicia. Here's Tarsus right here and the Roman province was called Cilicia.

Tarsus was a university town. It was a commercial center. It was a place of great learning and great commerce. Paul would have had an interesting upbringing in this large and important town that was in the Roman province of Cilicia. His citizenship was Roman.

We know that he was Roman by birth. Apparently his father was a Roman citizen. We don't know how he became a Roman citizen. You could become a Roman citizen one of two ways. Roman citizen, when you were born, you too were a Roman citizen. But if you were not a Roman citizen, you could purchase Roman citizenship. And it was very expensive to purchase a Roman citizenship.

Being a Roman citizen was viewed as a great thing because it gave you so many privileges. Roman citizens, unlike other people living in the Roman Empire, Roman citizens were entitled to a fair and public trial if they were charged with a crime. Roman citizens were not subject to summary execution. If a Roman soldier confronted you and you were a Roman citizen, that Roman soldier didn't have the right just to have you killed on the spot. But if you were not a Roman citizen and the Roman soldier believed you had done something you shouldn't have done, the Roman soldier could make the decision on the spot and have you executed. Roman citizens were not subject to certain forms of punishment.

For example, a Roman citizen could not be crucified. So it was a very valuable thing to be a Roman citizen. If you lied about being a Roman citizen, if you lied and you were caught in the lie, you were executed for claiming to be a Roman citizen when you were not one. So it was not something that was taken lightly and it was something that was very important. Paul was Jewish by birth and came out of the tribe of Benjamin.

likely got his Jewish name that we know as Saul from the first human Jewish king, King Saul. Now let me say a word about Paul's name. His Jewish name was Saul. But as a Roman citizen, he also had a Roman name. When he was born, he would have been registered, sort of like we do with a birth certificate with the Roman government. And at birth, he would have had a first name and a Rogers and then he would designate the name the Roman name by which he would be called and his Roman name was Pallas so he had his Roman name from birth many people think well he was Saul until he was converted and then he was Paul no he had both names one Jewish one Roman from the time he was born but after he was converted and as he began to go out to the Gentile world he used his Roman name most frequently in dealing with people because he was Paul. That was a Roman name as opposed to a Jewish name. Paulos meant little. And maybe Paul when he was born was a very small child and so he was given that name Paulos. So he had both these names Paul, Roman name Saul, but he was of Jewish heritage of the tribe of Benjamin.

His occupation was that of a tent maker. Probably, probably his family was a manufacturer of tents. The area in which he lived had a product called Cilicium. Cilicia was the name of the province. They had a product called Cilicium which was really goat's hair woven together was used to make tents.

And many believed that Paul's family was a tent-making family, that they were more like a manufacturer of tents. But Paul learned how to make tents being a part of that family. And that would be important for him later in life. That's how he would make his occupation. His religious identity before the Damascus Road was he was a Hebrew of Hebrews.

That's a designation that he gave to himself. And let me just take a moment to say and explain what it means to be a Hebrew of Hebrews or what Paul most likely meant by that. He first meant that he had a strong Jewish heritage. He was a Jew of Jews or a Jew from Jews. He's descended from Jewish parents.

He most likely had a very strict Jewish upbringing, which meant he would have been circumcised on the eighth day. When he turned 13 years old, he would have had a bar mitzvah. You've heard of bar mitzvahs for Jewish men age 13. That's when they become sons of the commandment. It's really sort of the threshold for manhood in Jewish thinking.

It's when you become personally responsible for fulfilling all the requirements of the law. And the Jews will have a ceremony for Jewish boys who turn 13 years old to tell them that they are now responsible themselves for complying with the law. Paul had an education under a Pharisee named Gamaliel. Paul probably as a teenager went to Jerusalem. And there under Gamaliel was trained in Jewish thinking and in Jewish law.

Gamaliel was a great teacher of the law. And it would be from him that Paul would have really gotten indoctrinated into what it meant to be a Jew and what it meant to be a Pharisee. Paul himself was a Pharisee and also the son of a Pharisee. Apparently either his father or one of his ancestors was a Pharisee also. You know who the Pharisees were, right, in the scriptures?

They were the ones who really kept the law. They had all these little oral rules that they added to the written law. And the purpose of all these little extra rules was to make sure that you kept the law. You weren't supposed to work on the Sabbath, right? That was one of the commandments.

But what does it mean? What is work? And the Pharisees began to develop all these rules about what it meant to work. And it really got ridiculous, you know. They tried to define how much weight you could pick up on the Sabbath and not constitute work.

How far could you walk on the Sabbath and it not be work? It got just to be really ridiculous. But Paul was zealous in keeping all of these rules of the Pharisees. But what leads us to our story today is that we know that Paul was a persecutor of the church. We know this.

He talks about this in his other letters, his writings in the New Testament. But let's just read a part that leads us into our story. Acts chapter 7 and let's read a few verses that lead up to our story for today. Acts chapter 7 let's pick up at verse 54. This is the stoning of Stephen.

When they heard this and this is Stephen has been talking to this group of Jewish leaders When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Look, he said, I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. At this, they covered their ears and yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.

Now let me make a point here. Before you could stone someone for blasphemy, you had to have two witnesses, a minimum of two witnesses under Jewish law. And someone had to take the testimony of those two witnesses and confirmed that the witnesses agreed in their testimony before the stoning could begin. And many believe that Paul, Saul, was designated as a Pharisee to take the testimony of the two witnesses before Stephen was stoned. So it is likely that two witnesses appeared before Saul.

He confirmed that Stephen had committed blasphemy and that Saul then pronounced the sentence. you may now stone Stephen. And then pick up at verse 59. While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Then he fell on his knees and cried out, Lord, do not hold this sin against him.

When he had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul was there giving approval to his death. On that day, a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem And all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. And many people believe that many of the Jewish Christians fled to other cities when this persecution broke out. Including the city of Damascus which was up north.

And that's where Saul is going to head after the stoning of Stephen. To try to persecute those Jewish Christians who have fled out of Jerusalem in this persecution. Well, this is where our story picks up for today.

Saul is going to travel to Damascus to persecute Jewish Christians. And just to give you a sense of distance, here's Jerusalem down here, and here's Damascus way up here. It's about a 150-mile trip to go all the way from Jerusalem right here and travel. You would go up and cross the Jordan River and head up to Damascus. So that's where he's headed.

And apparently as he got near Damascus, very close to Damascus, that's when it happened. Now before he goes to Damascus, he goes to the high priest, Caiaphas, most probably was the high priest. And Saul gets letters that he's going to take to the synagogue leaders in Damascus. And these letters were letters where Caiaphas was telling the leaders in the synagogues, You help out this Pharisee Saul as he attempts to eradicate this group that is called the way. And they're called the way probably because that's what Jesus said about himself.

I am the way, the truth, and the life. John 14, 6. So followers of Christ were known as followers of the way. So Saul is traveling to Damascus to persecute these followers of the way when he meets the Lord. several things. The text tells us that there was light

when Saul encountered the Lord. There are three different places in the book of Acts where this encounter is given. Acts 9 then Paul will recount this event in Acts 22 and then does it again in Acts 26. And what we learn from all of these three accounts is that the light of the Lord was a bright light He will say it's brighter than the sun. Light is an indicator of the presence of God often in Scripture.

In the burning bush, the light of the bush, God was present. And Saul encounters God on the Damascus Road as light comes down from heaven, blinding him as he's traveling toward Damascus. Secondly, he hears the voice of the Lord. And the voice asking, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? To address somebody twice was to get their attention and it was a formal way in that day of trying to let people know that something important was about to be said.

Saul, Saul, Jesus is saying pay attention. I'm about to say something important to you. Why do you persecute me? And Saul had to be thinking, but I'm not persecuting you. I'm persecuting these people here on earth.

he's going to learn an important lesson from this question that we'll look at in just a moment he responds who are you kurios which is the greek word for lord who are you lord paul saw knew that at this moment that this light a voice from above he had to be talking to something that was deity he wasn't yet sure he and so he asked the question who are you lord and the present the response is i am jesus whom you are persecuting now saul most probably believed what most jews believed at this point in time he believed that jesus this person who the christians claimed was the Messiah could not be the Messiah because he had been hanged on a tree. And every Jew knew that anyone hanged on a tree, according to Deuteronomy 21 verses 22 to 23, was accursed of God. So in Saul's thinking, as in the thinking of many other Jews, Jesus couldn't be the Messiah because he was obviously cursed of God by being hanged on the tree. And most Jews probably believed, as Saul did, that these stories of resurrection were just false stories, that really Jesus' body had just been stolen from the tomb by his followers. Yet, now on the Damascus Road, he hears, I am Jesus.

I am alive. I am existing. I am not dead. And I'm speaking to you from heaven. And he gets to meet the resurrected and ascended Lord on the road.

He actually sees the Lord. In Acts 9 he never says he saw the Lord. But in other accounts as he fleshes out what happens. We're told that he actually saw the Lord on this day. He is the last of the apostles to actually see the resurrected and also the ascended Lord.

You know most of the apostles saw Jesus after his resurrection. He was still on earth. Yes in somewhat a different appearance but still bodily appearance. He's not yet gone up into heaven where he would receive his full glory. But Saul sees him the ascended Lord and saw him in all of his glory.

And then lastly we're told that he gets a commission. You have to go read Acts 26 for this. The Lord commissions him to go and take the gospel to the Gentile world. That's why he encountered Saul on the Damascus Road. Not only to convert Saul to a follower of Jesus Christ.

But also to send him out to be the one who would take the gospel to the Gentiles. Okay? Everybody knows the story now. Most of you have heard it before. But what are the lessons from the story?

Here are the lessons for life. These are lessons that Saul learned, and they're lessons that we need to learn. Here they are. The first lesson is this. Our religious heritage is sometimes a hindrance rather than a help in our relationship to Christ.

sometimes our religious past is a hindrance rather than a help in our relationship to Christ some are not raised with a religious heritage that is Christian they are persuaded that there's another religious way that is right and so their religious heritage really is a hindrance to following Christ. But even for those of us who identify with Christian faith, is it not sometimes true that our religious heritage can get in the way of our relationship to Christ? Saul's religious heritage was a real problem for him. His Jewish thinking, some of his Jewish beliefs got in the way of his relationship with Christ. But the same can happen to those of us today who identify with Christian faith.

Let me just throw out some religious heritage things that we may have and see if they may get in the way of our relationship to Christ.

The most important thing is to attend church. That's part of our religious heritage, isn't it? We were raised that the most, there was a real emphasis just on attending church. So if you showed up, you must be a good Christian, right? How about this from a religious heritage standpoint?

Truly spiritual people always wear a coat and tie on Sunday.

You know, the best deacons are businessmen in the community.

everybody knows it will happen just the way the left behind series depicts it will happen

you laugh truly spiritual people are dignified and silent in church

without an organ worship God. Without a bass guitar and drums, we cannot truly worship God. It works both ways, folks. And our religious heritage can get in the way. It is really better for each race to have its own separate worship. We really worship better that way.

there's nothing wrong with buying the most expensive home or the nicest car that the bank will loan me money to buy. It's the American way. And that sort of invades our thinking about the Christian life sometimes. Religion is a good thing, but let's be practical. Let's not take this stuff too far.

Or, isn't that some of us in our religious heritage, that's the way it's been? Yeah, religion's a good thing. You should have religion as a part of your life. But let's be practical. Let's don't take this stuff too far.

Let's don't get crazy about this stuff.

Even if I'm a member of the church and doing something that is scandalously sinful, it's my business only and not the church's business at all. so we let people just do whatever because in our heritage so often to confront someone is just not viewed as the way to do things really doesn't matter what the Bible says

you may have other ideas but don't things like this begin to affect how we look at the Christian life and how we do things, how we worship we've got to be careful that we don't let the way we were raised become a hindrance to our really getting to know Christ and to worshiping him. The second lesson that we need to learn is this. We are the body of Christ. What we do to one another, we do to Christ.

Did you hear me? Jesus said to Saul, why do you persecute me? And Saul had to be thinking, I'm not persecuting you. I'm just persecuting this bunch of folks that call themselves followers of the way. but what Saul learned that day was that the church is the body of Christ and what we do to the church we do to Christ there is a close relationship they're tied together we are the body of Christ so what we do to one another we do to Christ so when you begin to talk about one of your brothers and sisters in church why don't you think about before what you before you talk about them I'm

Jesus. So I want to be careful about what I say. I'm getting ready to talk about someone who is part of the body. So I want to be careful what I say. I want to be sure that I treat others in the body the same way I would want to treat Jesus Christ. It might change the way we talk about one another, the way we treat one another if we keep and remember how closely The third lesson is we don't find Christ.

Christ finds us. Saul was not looking for Jesus as he was traveling the Damascus Road. But Jesus came and found him. The reality is for all of us before we came to Christ. It was Christ through his spirit that was drawing us to him.

Christ is always previous. who initiates our relationship. Yes, we are to seek him and to keep on seeking him, but let's remember it was he who sought us first and brought us to him. The next lesson is Jesus is the living Lord. Jesus is Lord, and it's only commitment to him as Lord that saves.

If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved for the rest of his life the term that Saul would most often use for Jesus was the term Lord that's how he would most often refer to Jesus Christ as Lord the sense that he is master he is ruler and the thing that he Paul would emphasize over and over not only is he his Lord, but he is the resurrected Lord, and it is only faith in a living Lord that saves. If Jesus is still in the grave, if he has not been resurrected, this stuff is meaningless. There is no reason for church. We ought to shut the doors. We ought to go home.

It is only if Christ is indeed resurrected that this stuff has meaning at all. Go read 1 Corinthians 15, one of Paul's later letters. He won't let us live with this notion that we can deny the resurrection, yet still have Christianity. He says Christianity stands or falls on the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If it is not true, then Christianity is a false religion.

But on that day, on that day on the Damascus Road, Saul knew that Jesus Christ is Lord. He is Lord. He is Lord. He is risen. from the grave and he is Lord.

And the resurrection of Jesus Christ confirmed that he was the Messiah, the Lord. Next lesson, there's nothing in our past that keeps us from coming to Christ in the present.

Saul persecuted followers of Christ. He jailed men and women. he at least authorized the killing of followers of Christ and may himself have actually participated at times in stoning to death people who were followers of Jesus Christ. He did many reprehensible, despicable things, yet he was chosen by the Lord to be the primary instrument for taking the gospel to the Gentile world. there's nothing in our past that keeps us from coming to Christ in the present on Thursday night as I talked to this gentleman on the phone he kept saying I don't think I can come to the Lord because of all I've done in the past and I kept saying it doesn't matter if you turn to Christ he will forgive there's some in this room who live with the burden of what's happened in the past things Things that should not have occurred.

But Jesus forgives. It is what I love about the Christian faith. It says we don't care what your past is. If you're prepared to turn to the Lord, it is all forgiven and stays in the past. It is a message unlike any other religion.

The past can be the past. And it can be a new life in Christ. Paul is an apostle to whom we should listen and for whom we should thank God. I didn't finish doing my PowerPoint there. And for whom we should thank God.

Paul is an apostle in the technical sense. The word apostle means one who is sent. But technically an apostle was one who met the risen Lord and got his commission from the risen Lord. Paul is an apostle in that technical sense. So he is one who was commissioned by the Lord.

He wrote 13 letters in the New Testament from Romans to Philemon. When we read those letters we are reading the letters of one who was commissioned by the Lord as an apostle. We need to pay attention to what Paul says. There are some who say I don't much like what Paul says. You don't have to be around in theological circles long that some people have trouble with Paul.

his writings. I don't know about this guy Paul. Paul is an authorized apostle of the Lord who wrote under the inspiration of the Spirit. What he teaches is God's Word. And we must pay attention to it and learn from it. And thank God that we have those writings.

Oh I did get it in there. And lastly, following the Lord is costly. Saul would pay dearly for his commitment to Christ. Flip over with me and just read a couple of verses. 2 Corinthians Corinthians chapter 11. And listen to some of what Paul paid for his commitment to Christ.

2 Corinthians 11, start at verse 24.

He's still got a ways to go in his Christian life, but here he says, 2 Corinthians 11, 24, Five times I received from the Jews the 40 lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea.

I had been constantly on the move. I had been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea, and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep. I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food. I have been cold and naked.

Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. And in Galatians 6, 17, he will say, I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. His body was scarred up from the beatings and the floggings that he got. He bore on his body the marks of Jesus. There is no better way than to follow the way, the truth and the life of Jesus Christ.

But folks, it is a costly journey. And I think we need to make no pretense of that with people. If truly we're committed to Christ, it will cost us something. And we need to quit offering what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called cheap grace. Grace that doesn't cost anything.

Because it does. As I talked to the gentleman who called me Thursday night, actually Friday morning at 12.15 in the morning, I asked him, do you wish to pray to receive Christ? He said, yes. But then I told him this. I said, before you pray, you need to understand that inheriting eternal life is more than saying just words.

It requires a committing of our lives to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Master. It's no longer our way. It's His way. We no longer are our own masters. He is our master.

We no longer sit on the throne. It's Jesus that is on the throne of our heart.

Do you know what He did? Do you know what He did? What do you think He did? He hung up. He hung up.

Of course, I had his number on my cell phone, right? So I called him back. It's now about 12.35 in the morning. And I call back. And the phone rings and rings and rings and rings.

And then he picks up the phone. And he hangs it right back up.

I'm going to try to call him again. I've got his name. And I've got his number. But if he will not bend the knee to Jesus as Lord, there's no hope. Who are you, Lord?

Saul asked. Have we bent the knee to Jesus as Lord? Is he our master? if he is not let's bend the knee today let's pray

Lord I just praise your name that through the apostle we know as Paul we know so much about the Christian faith because through him you have revealed so much to us I pray that this familiar story we will recognize is an important story for our present. May we listen to the lessons for life that come from the conversion and call of Saul, the Apostle Paul, on the Damascus Road. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.