Grace Chapel Bible Ministries
worship call 1190 The Saul of Tarsus - 2024/11/27
[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] >> Welcome to Worship Call with Bible teacher Buzz Lulbeck. Buzz is the pastor of Grace Chapel Bible Ministries located in Duncan, South Carolina. This ministry is dedicated to the verse by verse teaching of God's word and discipleship programs aimed at strengthening the faith of God's people. Now here's today's message. >> How miraculous was your conversion? Did you see a light? Did you hear a voice? Probably not. But nonetheless, light did shine out of heart. That was dead to a relationship with God. Who and what were we? And maybe we weren't killing Christians and maybe we weren't the worst of the worst. Maybe we were. But nonetheless, it was the sovereignty of the universe. Who are we at the sovereignty of the universe? The righteous one, the one whom we have sinned against and we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. Us which sin and the wages of sin is death and we've all sinned. But nonetheless, the grace and the mercy of God called upon us and took us out of darkness, caused light to shine out of heart and took that which was dead to him and brought him into his wonderful glory. This is the fourth day of the week in God's created order. The 27th day of the 11th month, 2024th year of our Lord and this is another fine day in the Lord. Father in heaven, we thank you for it. We praise you for your grace, your mercy, your kindness. We thank you heavenly Father when we were yet sinners that your son, our Lord Jesus, died for us. And once more that he called us, he predestined us, he called us, he brought us into a family and he made us his. What a wonderful privilege that is. We have so much to be thankful for in this time of thanksgiving, whether we have little or whether we have much. Our much comes from the abundance of grace that we have already received and we thank you for it. Open our hearts to study this morning Christ's name, we pray. Amen. And we are studying and we are in chapter nine, coming into chapter nine. And okay, got the lighting settled, situated this day. As we go, as we go, we are ministering, that's where we finished up yesterday. We are bringing others into the family of God, into the body of Christ, and evangelism, and we are discipling. Every day we have service as church, listen, just because this is thousands of years ago. Don't mean that the church growth has stopped. That the days of acts are still here, the days of the spirit continues as we go about our lives. And as we are ministering, if you caught anything yesterday, understand that you are a full-time Christian ministry. When you get up and your feet touch you to ground and you go off, regardless of what you're doing and your business of that day, whether it's social, whether it's business or whatever it is, you are the Lord's and the Lord is, as you are in the Lord's ministry. And as we go, we are ministering and the church is growing. So the church is growing, and the devil personified to many in the body of Christ was none other than the Saul of Parchus. You're going to have to expect the fact that there is going to be opposition, and many times opposition is going to be a person that Satan is using. So God calls you into the light he's using you, but Satan is going to use his people to attack. But with Saul really a agent of Christ. Let's talk about Paul a little bit. He was a brutal man against those who are followers of the way. He was a Pharisee. He was up and coming. He was talented. He was smart. He was trained under the most renowned teacher, Gamelior El. He was awesome in what he did. A Pharisee, and we may argue to point whether he was a believer or not, and I will argue to point that he was a believer. That he was zealous for the Lord, for God. He was zealous to do the right thing in what he was doing. He thought that he sincerely did it for the Lord. And Saul's mind, these followers of the way were heretics. Listen, put yourself in the moment. Put yourself in Paul's position. You love God. You love the law. You love what you've, your heart is there to do the right thing. And there's a lot of religious people doing a lot of wrong things. Very wrong things. Because they think that it is right before the Lord. And so in Saul's mind, these followers of the way were very much heretics. And they were worshiping a man. Listen, they were worshiping a man. Again, put yourself in a moment. They were calling Jesus God. That Jesus, the Son of God, if you weren't looking at the intricacies of the law, you missed the point. If you were looking at it in a legalistic fashion, you missed it in a point. Here is, you're missing everything that the law pointed to. That here's a man who people were calling a God. These were Jews. These were his fellow countrymen. And they were banning their faith by the thousands. They made a man a God. I hope you're hearing me on this. And this is the perspective of Saul. Yahweh, a man. And this heresy was spreading by the thousands. It had to be stopped. And he was committed to do the Lord's work. To destroy them as God had done in the past against those who blasphemed against him. He saw himself as God's sword. Saul was not acting wickedly, not in his mind. He was following, Saul was acting following biblical precedents. He, what did Moses do? What did Moses do when he came down and they were worshiping the golden calf? Let's look at that Exodus 32.22. Nope, I missed it. There we go. Aaron said, "Do not let the anger of my Lord burn. You know the people yourself that they are prone to evil. For they said to me, make a God for us. Who will go before us? For this Moses, the man who brought us up from the Land of Egypt. We do not know what has become of him." I said to them, "Who ever has any gold? Let them tear it often so they gave it to me." I threw it into the fire. I came in this calf. Now when the Moses saw that the people were out of control. For Aaron had let them out, get out of control to be a derision among their enemies. Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, "Whoever is for the Lord, come to me." And all the sons of Levi gathered together to him. And he said to them, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, every man of you, put his sword upon his thigh and go back and forth from the gate to the gate in the camp and kill every man, his brother and every man, his friend and every man, his neighbor." So the sons of Levi did as Moses instructed and about 3,000 men of the people fell that day. So that was harsh. That wasn't, I mean that was no small thing. And so I say that Saul was only following biblical precedents to snuff out those that were going up against God. See Saul was a Jew. He grew up in the Jewish faith. He was from the tribe of Benjamin. And again he learned his lessons well. And so what made Saul different from the other Pharisees? Well the other Pharisees were self-serving. They were far from devotional. They played the game. I do not believe that they were believers. I do not believe that they were saved. They were opportunists and they were using religion for their advancement. They knew the law and they did not, they themselves did not follow it. Jesus even said himself, do what they say but don't do what they do. Saul was doing what Moses would have done. And Pharisees were blinded by their own authority. They were the religious establishment which Jesus and now the apostles threatened, these apostles, the apostles of Jesus were threatening. They were murdered for the cause of their own lofty perch. Their authority was threatened. It was threatened by Jesus and now it was threatened by the apostles. And they were opportunists. They were happy to use Saul in his capacity. Saul on the other hand was zealous for the law to keep it, to abide by it, and now to defend it. Acts, words later on, Acts 22-3, the words of Paul. I am a Jew born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in the city, educated on Gamelio, strictly according to the law of our fathers being zealous for God, just as you all are today. I persecuted this, persecuted this way to the death, binding and putting both men and women in prison, and also the high priest and all the counsel of the elders can testify. From them I also received letters to the brethren and started off to Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished. Galatians 1-14. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries. Among my countrymen being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions. But when God who had set me apart even from my mother's womb and called me through his grace was pleased to reveal his son to me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles. The Philippians 3-4. Although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh, if anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more circumcise the eighth day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law of Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness which is in the law found blameless. But whatever things to me those things I have counted as law for the sake of Christ. We can't say that Saul was an unbeliever, though many probably saw Paul as the devil himself. God had prepared Saul, and you know what? God was working on Saul long before that day on Damascus. We can, as believers, you can go back into your life if you sit there and retrospect. And before you even called upon the name of Jesus, before he caused life to shine out of your heart, you can look now back and see how God was directing your life to your own Damascus, to your own Damascus road, where the Lord would call you and to use you and bring you into his family. So God prepared Paul, or Saul, and Paul of Saul, even prior to calling him, and this was probably, and this right here, this right here would be one of the most important conversions of the church age. Saul, the enemy of the church, the persecutor of the church, filled with the vile and the hatred toward these whom he would call heretics, would find pleasure, found pleasure in seeing the stone strikes Stephen, and that Stephen falling dead, and taking pleasure in that, that another heretic would be taken out of this life. And here it was that this one, that the light of the Lord Jesus Christ would break through, and to call him into service, into his service. What's the point of application here? If Saul can be saved, who can't be? God will use the person, the one who was the greatest defender of the law, to be the greatest spokesman for Christ in his grace. Acts 9 1 and 2, Acts 9 1. Now Saul's still breathing, threats, and murder against the disciples of the Lord went to the High Priest, and asked for a letter from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the way, both men and women, he might bring them and bound them to Jerusalem, bring them bound to Jerusalem. The letters it was customary, that there was a respect of the Sanhedrin throughout the land. That's, I'll tell you what, let's go back to 9, go back to our, okay. In Damascus, let's take a look at, let's go to the Damascus place, let's take a look at the Atlas here, and here atlas Jerusalem, Jerusalem down here, and Jerusalem here is the beginning, the first place of Christianity. It was still a headquarters for the apostles, but when persecution began, then those who were in Jerusalem began to spread out those Christians who spread out. That, remember thousands were being saved, so thousands were not staying in Jerusalem, but they were moving out. We just spoke about Samaria in this area right here, where Philip was bringing the gospel to the Samaritans, and now the focus becomes up, I don't know, let's say probably maybe 400 miles northward, to Damascus, and in Damascus was a city, and the writings say that there was a influx of, or quite a few Christians, it was quite the Christian community growing in Damascus, so here it was that Paul goes to the Sanhedrin and to the council, and again, they were respected from synagogues all over this, their synagogues, their headquarters, and so the synagogues are spread out, so that the letter from the Sanhedrin would be his bona fides, that he would receive full cooperation, and they would receive from all the synagogues in which he goes to, to identify, to point out who the Christians were, and who the rabbal rises were, so he could arrest them, and take them back to Jerusalem, that they may stand before the Sanhedrin, and they may be executed. So, again, saw still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the High Priest, so we look at that disciples, the learners, what were they doing, what were they doing, they were learning, they were learning, they were being taught, they were being, faith comes through here, and the Christian faith comes through hearing. So, he went to the High Priest and asked for letters from him to the synagogues, to the Damascus, so that they, if found any belonging to the way, let's talk about that way for a moment, that was, the way of right, for some it was the way of righteousness. It was an early name for the community of those who confess Jesus as Messiah. And John 14 16 says, Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to me to the Father, but through me." The way is a righteous way, and even if scenes call themselves the way, because they saw themselves as the only way. Acts 19, 9. But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the way, of the way, before the people, he withdrew from them. And then Acts 24 14, "But this I admit to you, that according to the way, which they called a sect, I do serve the God of our Father, leaving everything that is in accordance with the law, and that is written to the prophets." So, again, the same designation would be held by other groups as well, such as the scenes who considered their way of righteousness was the way to go. So here, both men and women indiscriminate, arrest, leaving orphans behind. If necessary, there was no heart, there was no sympathy. It was, according to Paul's view here, that they made up their mind. It wasn't him. It was, they're the ones who are heretics. He was doing God's work. They made up their mind. He's going to be God's sword to execute judgment. The persecution began in Jerusalem, and now it's going to head off to Damascus, where he's going to make those arrests. Not Acts 9, 3. As he was traveling, as it was going along, it happened, that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. And he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" And he said, "Who are you, Lord?" And he said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting." Then we'll stop right there. So he's approaching Damascus, and he sees that light, that light engulfs him. And it lights so intense that it causes him to fall to the ground. Hey, great place to be when the Lord is addressing you. When the Lord is going to talk to you, great place to be in that face on your face. So it brings it into a posture of subordination, may I say. And the voice came out, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" Great words, words that we shouldn't just go over. Think about this. The Lord speaking, here it is that Jesus is speaking to Saul. And by the way, all the accreditation of apostles, those with the gift of apostleship, are those who have seen the Lord Jesus Christ. And this aspect, this is Paul who has seen his blindness. Isn't it funny? He got blinded, but he has qualified as seeing the Lord. And the Lord is the Lord's, you can hear him. Why are you persecuting me? Very important question. Very something, and very important question, a statement here. Because he didn't say, "Why are you persecuting my church? Why are you persecuting them? Why are you going to Damascus and those Christians?" He said, "Why are you persecuting me?" It brings me back to the passage that Jesus and Matthew 25. And in Matthew 25, Jesus says, when he's talking in that parable, he says, "When have we seen you arrested? When have we seen you hungry?" And Matthew, Jesus replies to this in this parable. He says, "Then he will answer. This is the king. This is the king who's speaking to them. Then he will answer them. Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me." Earlier it was, you know, the people were surprised. When did we see you hungry? When did you see you thirsty? When did we visit you in prison? He said, "When you did this, you did it for me. You did it to me." So we're talking about the body of Christ. Jesus is the head. We are the body. The least of us and the greatest of us. When we recognize, when we take a look, even when we're harmed by a fellow Christian, and we will, we can be cheated, we can be harmed. Nonetheless, that one, that one belongs to the Lord and the forgiveness and the, not treating evil for evil, but recognizing that this one, as we do for this one, even the least in his kingdom, we do it for the Lord. We do not hold grudges. We do not hate. We go the extra mile for the best and for the worst Christians that we know because it is the body of Christ. We, in our eagerness, to serve others, to serve those in churches. As I've said, I have, from becoming the study of Acts, I have become a big proponent of the local churches. And when we are not, it is not just a pastor and a pulpit teaching the Word of God and saying, "Goodbye, see you next Sunday." That there is activity among, and I'm not talking about programs, but I'm talking about actual care of one another within that body of Christ. Every person within that congregation is important to the other because it's the body of Christ. And you're, and you're there not just to receive something, but to, to function within that body and, and one another. There's people that, people that you, that you can reach, where even the pastor can, people that you can counsel when they're, comforting others as you have been comforted to, and, and all of this within the body, and this is the body of Christ when someone attacks that body. They're not attacking just Christ or the body itself or the individual, but they're attacking Christ. This is his church. So we should have, as Saul was having a zeal to, to kill the church, we should have a zeal to serve the church. So as we are the church, the extension of the ministry of Christ, his ministry did not stop at the cross, but it continues in us. The church age is unique age where Christ is the head and we are the body. We should be thanking God for, for being born in this age. We have a special relationship with the person of the Lord. So here it is that, that Saul addresses him. Again, another subordination. First of all, he's on the ground. Second of all, he causes sir. Who are you, Lord? This is Kurios. And I don't believe, I don't believe that this is a, a, all of a sudden, admission that I know who you are, that you are God, that you are. Sir is a, a submissive term, sir, master. It's not just Kurios as we know of the Lord, but Paul recognized that he is at the mercy of the voice speaking in his blindness from the light. And he said, and he answers. And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. At this point, Saul, at this, at this point, I wonder, at what point? Shall I say, what point? Does Paul recognize that this is it? At what point does he recognize that the reality of what he was up against? Was it then I wonder? The power of the light that knocked him down. God is light. Jesus is God. And that light that, that should, that's, I'd call it the Shgina glory. Just bashed him down and brought him to his knees. There's coming a time in Philippians says that every, that there's coming a time when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. At what point did, did, um, Saul recognize that the reality, the, the, what do you call the desperation of, uh, at that point that may have come over him? Maybe it was the same way with Adam. When Adam was confronted with the reality of the Lord coming in the garden and fear just engulfed him. And then there was some relief when he just did not immediately die, which he could. Every moment of Saul's life, even up to that point, even in his recognition that who he was up against, that this was Jesus, whom he was persecuting, that he came to realize that, um, well, I've got a moment in every moment after that. He has been under the mercy, the grace and the mercy of God, the grace that gave him another breath, the mercy that the moment that God withhelds from. And what does the Lord do? He doesn't say, okay, I've forgiven you. He doesn't do that. What does the Lord do? Um, which, which offers hope, by the way, Acts nine, six, but get up and enter the city and it will be told to you what you must do. There was not immediate execution. But I wonder how quick Saul was going to, to respond to that, how fast do you think that Saul would say salute, and maybe he even ran. I don't know if he took time to even get on the horse, but as quick as I would think, I would think, and I'm just conjecture here to think, as quick as I could get into, I'd be hurrying up to figure out what it is that I'm going to do now. Um, Acts nine, seven, the men who traveled should speechless. The man who traveled with them stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could not see nothing in leading him by the hand, they brought him to Damascus. And he was three days without sight and neither eight nor drank. And then we're going to get into his meeting. So the Lord may have knocked him down and had this miraculous conversion. But then what about you? What about me? I wasn't necessarily knocked down and engulfed by light were you? And maybe a voice did not come out of that light and introducing himself as Jesus. But when the Lord did call us, it was so miraculous. He has called those that were the most starches of unbelievers, those that just hit God and hated the name of Jesus. And they were drunkards, they were, they may have been moral, they may have been moral, they may have been immoral. They were people that you may have thought that God would never reach. But what about you? What made you so worthy that the Lord would grant his grace and mercy and call you and cause light to shine out of your heart where there was nothing but darkness? It made me a miracle with Saul to have converted and who had responded to the Word of God in the gospel, but was so for you and I as well. Because we think about it, we believe that irrational, a very irrational message that some guy died on a call 2,000 years ago had anything to do with me living eternally. But for some reason because of that light that shines out of our heart, we respond it. And we said, "This is my Jesus. Who are you, Lord? Let me come to know you." Father, in heaven, thank you for this opportunity to just mourn and fellowship in your Word. We pray heavily, Father, that as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we so thank you in this season of Thanksgiving and beyond. That however it is, what you saved us, it caused the light to shine out of our hearts. We respond it. And maybe remember that day, this day, and every day, and respond in time by following the Christ and we pray. Amen. It's another fine day in the Lord. Keep your armor on. Keep fighting in good, find a faith. Lord, will, and spirit, God, and record. We'll be back here in the A.M. I love you all. Thank you for joining us. You can hear this message again as well as previous lessons and get notes by visiting us online at www.gchapel.org. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]
How miraculous was your conversion? Did you see a light? Did you hear a voice? Probably not. but none the less, Light did shine of a heart of darkness, and it was then that God took an underserving sinner and made that one his own.