The result of Paul’s Conversion

Published by Stanley Pouw in 2016 · 10 July 2016

In Acts 9 we have these three accounts of the conversion of the apostle Paul. There is no other conversion in Scripture that is described with so much detail. All his life was a battle. Before he encountered Christ on the Damascus Road, he was warring against Christ, against the gospel and the church. And after that, he was warring against Satan, and against lies, deception and false religion, and fighting to save sinners.

When Paul gave his testimony to the Roman leaders in Acts 26:9, he said, “I thought I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus,” and that is what he was doing. But Christ conquered him. The blasphemer Saul became the preacher Paul. The agent of hate became the prophet of love. That heart full of anger for the blood of Christians now desired that the blood of Christ renews every heart.

He was totally transformed from a volatile enemy of the gospel to become the greatest apostle of the New Testament, the most saintly and heroic person who has ever elevated the name of Jesus Christ. He is the greatest example of the power of the resurrection and gospel transformation. And we have been studying his life as we have been working our way through this chapter.

First we saw in the opening nine verses, that he had a new master, Jesus Christ. It’s an encounter with Christ which changed his soul. This changed his life and his eternal destiny. And immediately, he enters into a new realm, a new domain. And we see that in verses 10-12. In his blindness, Paul is left there for days and he is praying. The mark of true conversion is communion with God.

Then we saw that he not only had a new master and a new life, but he had a new mission. And Ananias came to him to tell him what the Lord had told him. Verse 15: “This man is a chosen instrument of Mine to bear My name before the nations and kings and the sons of Israel.” He is called to be a missionary.

Verse 17, “And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” So Ananias after getting a message from the Lord, put his hands on him to symbolize solidarity and transfer to him what he’d heard from the Lord.

For his new mission to proclaim the gospel to the Gentiles and to kings and to Israel, he must have new power. And that new power is the power of the Holy Spirit. He is filled with the Holy Spirit. And you remember in Acts 1:8 it says, “You will receive power after the Holy Spirit is come upon you.” The indwelling Holy Spirit empowers the believer.

And what did the Holy Spirit do with this man? God takes what is already there, the DNA and the experience, and God develops that into something that can be used for the kingdom: like leadership ability, willpower, self-discipline, motivation, persistence, convictions, boldness and strength. All of those things were already created in Paul, but the Lord refines these usable characteristics.

Secondly, God has to replace the unusable characteristics like hatred, animosity, bitterness and anger and He replaced them in Paul’s life with love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and self-control. Paul became a model of humility. And that’s what the Lord does in every born-again life. A new master causes you to have a new mission to serve Him for the rest of your life. And the power for that service is the Holy Spirit because that is what He does.

And we are to be filled with the Spirit. In Acts 9:17, Ananias told Paul, “to be filled with the Holy Spirit.” That’s how we are to live our lives, and it produces a submission to one another. It produces love in a marriage, submission between children and parents. So all of these things were true of Paul, and they are true of every believer.

On the Damascus Road, Paul saw Christ and after that Christ blinded him. Ananias declares that Paul saw the Lord. And later on, Barnabas shows up and Barnabas declares that Paul saw the Lord. So the fact that Paul saw the Lord is confirmed by three witnesses: Ananias, Barnabas and Paul himself. This was no figment of his imagination. He saw the Lord and he began to live his life controlled by the Holy Spirit.

Paul developed a keen sensitivity to sin under the leading of the Holy Spirit. He had a hunger for the truth of God, the revelation of God and the Word of God and he became an instrument through which that word came. He did nothing to grieve the Holy Spirit, nothing to quench the Holy Spirit, but everything to honor the Holy Spirit and move in the Spirit’s power. And he received a new family, a new fellowship with the saints.

Transformation results in a dramatic change in your relationships. All the people Saul hated became the people he loved. And all the people he formally associated with became his enemies. He was a hero to the Jewish leadership; he was a one-man campaign with their blessing and their manpower and their authority to stamp out Christianity. But after the Damascus Road experience, everything changed.

Acts 13:44-45 says, “On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God. 45 But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul.” In Acts 14:19, “Then Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there; and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead.”

In Acts 17:5 the same thing happens, “But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.” And in Acts 21:27 is written, “Now when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews from Asia, seeing Paul in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him,

Verse 28 while crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, the law, and this place; and furthermore he also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.” Verse 30-32, “And all the city was disturbed; and the people ran together, seized Paul, and dragged him out of the temple; and immediately the doors were shut. 31 Now as they were seeking to kill him, news came to the commander of the garrison that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. 32 He immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down to them. And when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.”

These are the same Jewish people who considered him a hero before. The change in this man was dramatic, now he became their archenemy. All the people that Saul hated became the people he loved; and all the people that loved Saul became the ones who hated him the most. How is it possible that there is such a total transformation, such a 180 shift? Only by the power of God and a total transformation of a man’s soul.

Let us now continue in Acts 9:20, “Immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues that He is the Son of God.” He also had a new message and he presented that right away. Verse 21-22, “Then all who heard were amazed, and said, “Is this not he who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem, and has come here for that purpose, so that he might bring them bound to the chief priests? 22 But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ.”

This conversion is so radical that immediately Paul goes from persecuting Christians to preaching that Jesus is the Christ. And where does he go to do that? In the very synagogues that gave him the authority to capture and execute Christians. He is so motivated to speak about the Lord Jesus Christ, even though he is just a new convert. What does he know?

Well, this is a highly educated man who sat at the feet of Gamaliel, the most outstanding Jewish teacher at that time.

The very synagogues that had solicited his help to eradicate Christianity, were the places that he went. Paul’s courage is really incredible. It would have been much easier for him to begin somewhere else. But he goes right there because in Romans 1:16 he says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.”

And he is proving it. Now how do you prove to Jews that Jesus is the Son of God? There is only one place he can use, that is the Old Testament. Paul was an Old Testament scholar trained by elite Old Testament scholars. And all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit illuminated all that he knew about the Old Testament, and it all pointed to Christ. He looked at Christ and he had his own Isaiah 53:5 experience, “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.”

He probably did what Jesus did in Luke 24, went back to Moses, the prophets, and the Holy Writings and taught them everything about Jesus that he knew there. He perhaps declared that Jesus was the fulfillment of Psalm 22, that Jesus was in His resurrection the fulfillment of Psalm 16. And that Jesus was the final ultimate Lamb depicted in all the other animal sacrifices; that Jesus who would come and redeem His people.

Now it is good to give a testimony about what the Lord has done in your life. But you have to get to the facts of the gospel. Romans 10:14 says, “And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” Verse 17, “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Christianity is not a feeling; it’s not an experience. It is a historic fact.

History is the basis of all our Christian faith because it all really happened! Christianity and the gospel is not subjective, it’s objective. And you must prove that the gospel is true from Scripture. It is centered not in your life and not in mine and not in our experience. It is based on the saving acts of God recorded in Scripture, culminating in Christ, all historical acts that were accomplished outside our lives.

Verse 23, “Now after many days were past, the Jews plotted to kill him.” Do you know how long “many days” was? Paul says in Galatians 1:15-18, “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, 16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. 18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and remained with him fifteen days.”

Paul spent three years in Damascus and in Arabia before going to Jerusalem. What was he doing in Arabia? He was receiving revelation from the Lord. That’s what he says in Galatians 1:11-12, “But I make known to you brothers that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. 12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.” So after returning, the Jews plotted together to do away with him. Because he was going to be preaching again.

Verse 24, “But their plot became known to Saul. And they watched the gates day and night, to kill him.” Everywhere Paul went he made enemies. Verse 25, “Then the disciples took him by night and let him down through the wall in a large basket.” Ancient cities are surrounded by high wide walls, and in those walls were houses, and their windows were on the outside of the wall.

Verse 26, “And when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, and did not believe that he was a disciple.” They didn’t know what had gone on for three years. Verse 27, “But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. And he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.”

So verse 28-29, “So he was with them at Jerusalem, coming in and going out. 29 And he spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Hellenists.” He did that for two weeks. Because in Galatians 1:18, it says, “Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and remained with him fifteen days.” And similar to Stephen he disputed with the Greek Jews about Jesus Christ.

Because of that they were attempting to put Paul to death. And so in verse 30, “When the brethren found out, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him out to Tarsus.” They know how useful he is now, so they send him to his home. Acts 15:22, “Then it pleased the apostles and elders, to send chosen men of their own church to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely, Judas who was also named Barsabas and Silas, leading men among the brothers.”

The next verse 23, “They wrote this letter by them: The apostles, the elders, and the brethren, to the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia.” How did they get to Syria and Cilicia? Besides Tarsus Paul went there too. So he proclaimed the gospel to the Jews and also to the Gentiles.

Verse 31, “Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.” Because Paul, the persecutor was changed to an evangelist and the church increased. Peter takes over the story in the book of Acts now and Paul comes back later. Let’s pray.