The Conversion of Saul - Part 1 (Acts 9:1-31)

Welcome & Announcements

Free Movie Night on January 27th, 2023, at 7pm. We’ll be showing Amazing Grace (2006), which is a historical retelling of the life of William Wilberforce, who sought to end the British slave trade in the late 1700s. Admittance, popcorn, snacks, and drinks will be provided free of charge.

Let me remind you to continue worshiping the Lord through your giving. To help you give, we have three ways to do so, (1) cash and checks can be given at the offering box. Checks should be written to Grace & Peace; debit, credit, and ACH transfers can be done either by (2) texting 84321 with your $[amount] and following the text prompts or (3) by visiting us online at www.giving.gapb.church. Of course, everything you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Call to Worship (Ps 70)

Our Call to Worship this morning is Psalm 70, which is a short psalm of David, which was utilized for what he calls the memorial offering. In it, David calls for the speedy destruction of the wicked while requesting the preservation of the godly. Please stand and read with me Psalm 70, I’ll read the odd-numbered verses; please join me in reading the even-numbered verses.

Psalm 70 ESV

To the choirmaster. Of David, for the memorial offering. 1 Make haste, O God, to deliver me! O Lord, make haste to help me! 2 Let them be put to shame and confusion who seek my life! Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt! 3 Let them turn back because of their shame who say, “Aha, Aha!” 4 May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you! May those who love your salvation say evermore, “God is great!” 5 But I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay!

Congregational Singing

Brethren, We Have Met to Worship (334)

His Mercy is More (Lead)

In Christ Alone (177)

Scripture Reading (Gen 15)

Genesis 15 ESV

1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. 7 And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” 8 But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” 9 He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. 11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. 12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” 17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

Preaching of God’s Word (Acts 9:1-31)

Introduction

Please turn your Bible to Acts 9:1-31.

As we’ve been working through the book of Acts we’ve seen a few constants in our study. We keep seeing God working in amazing ways through His apostles, we see the apostles proclaiming the Gospel and teaching the truth, and we see thousands of people hearing this message, repent, and believe in Jesus as the Christ. Likewise, there have been a few other constants through the historical account of Acts—for instance, not everyone believes the message proclaimed by the apostles and disciples, and there are certain people who have had an absolute intolerance towards the message—like the Sadduccees, Pharisees, most of the Sanhedrin, and the High Priests.

There’s also another person that we’ve seen from time to time throughout the text whose name is Saul—our first introduction to him was during the martyrdom of Stephen in Acts 6, 7, and 8. We see Stephen proclaim the Gospel, the people become irate with him, pick up stones, and stone him. The account of Stephen’s martyrdom ends with the people placing Stephen’s belongings at the feet of Saul, who approved the execution of Stephen. In Acts 8:3, we read about Saul dragging people from their homes, arresting them, and ripping families apart and his intention behind squashing Christianity doesn’t end there—it continues at the start of this passage.

Let’s read Acts 9:1-31 but please know that we aren’t working through the full text this morning—we’re only working until Acts 9:19—we’re just reading the full text to help us keep it all in context.

Acts 9:1–31 ESV

1 But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. 4 And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” 5 And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6 But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” 7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. 8 Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9 And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank. 10 Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” 11 And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, 12 and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” 13 But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. 14 And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” 17 So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; 19 and taking food, he was strengthened. For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. 20 And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” 21 And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?” 22 But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. 23 When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, 24 but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, 25 but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket. 26 And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. 28 So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. 29 And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists. But they were seeking to kill him. 30 And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus. 31 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

Again, this morning, we’re looking specifically at vv. 1-20 and as we study these verses together, we’re going to break it into two parts: (1) Saul Sees Jesus (1-9) and (2) Saul Meets Ananias (10-20). In these two sections, we see how Jesus calls Saul to repentance and belief in Jesus; and we see Saul’s commission to be an apostle to the Gentiles. In the case of Saul, his conversion is shocking and surprising; and it results in a complete change of mind, mission, and vision for Saul. Or put another way, Saul genuinely repents and when he repents, he changes his thinking about everything. This morning, we’ll see just how powerful the Gospel is as someone who literally murdered Christians, hears the truth, repents, and changes drastically because of the Gospel.

Prayer for Illumination

Saul Sees Jesus (1-9)

Saul, despite his zeal for God, has so far missed the Gospel to the extent that in his ignorance, he’s persecuting the true church of Jesus Christ. We read in v. 1, that Saul was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples and had gone to the high priest to ask permission to literally kidnap men and women belonging to the Way to bring them to Jerusalem for trial.

Saul, though he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees didn’t have the authority to make the decision to bind up people and drag them to Jerusalem, so it makes sense that he needed to ask permission to do this—and in this case, he seeks to do it at the synagogues at Damascus.

You can tell just how much the high priests hated the idea of Christianity because they definitely gave him the approval to persecute this new religious movement, which might cause you to wonder about something—why would they do any of this?

And the reasonings rather simple—the high priests were the religious leaders of the Jewish people and they were corrupt in their sin. They cared more for power, authority, and money than they did about the truth—so, when Jesus came along, they used the guise of Jesus supposedly being a blasphemer to murder him.

When the disciples and apostles came along, the high priests utilized the guise of them blaspheming to try to end the movement that was started by Jesus.

It’s worth noting that Christianity at this time had started gaining a reputation, so much so, that they’ve started calling it the Way.

In the book of Acts, we see Christianity referred to as the Way five different times (Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22). You might be curious as to where the name comes from.

Patrick Schreiner, suggests that it comes primarily from Isaiah and is connected with the idea of the Exodus. He says, “The identification of the community of Jesus followers as “the Way” is derived from Isa 40:3, which tells of the way on which the Lord will travel when Israel is restored from exile. “The Way” in Isaiah is new-exodus language and out-of-exile imagery (Exod 13:21–22; 23:20). It is the path on which God takes them out of Babylon and therefore has an appropriate geographic focus. Acts refers to the way of salvation (16:7), the Lord (18:25), and of God (18:26)” (Patrick Schreiner, Acts, Christian Standard Commentary (Holman Reference, 2021), 297)

Christianity is being called the Way by those outside of the church because of the Christian understanding that there’s only one way for salvation and once you find salvation in Jesus Christ, the life that you now live is dedicated to living a certain way.

And its all predicated on the simple truth that Jesus is Christ.

Of course, someone who is zealous in the way of the Pharisees like Saul is, his mindset is that anything like the Way, which diverts away from Judaism and draws Jewish people out of what he considers the proper understanding of truth is heretical, blasphemous, and deserves punishment.

Even if Saul is motivated by the desire to keep power, authority, and money like the high priests seem to be, he’s still motivated with a wrong understanding of the truth—and thus, he seeks to end what he sees as a diversion from the truth.

And unsurprisingly, the high priests grant him the permission to do this.

Saul’s mission was to persecute anyone who belonged to this new Way found through Jesus Christ.

It is on his way to Damascus to do this, that he has a life-changing confrontation with the Jesus whom he’s persecuting. In vv. 3-4, he is approaching Damascus, when suddenly “a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’”

Just consider what this must’ve been like for him—this is not a natural light and we know this from his response.

For instance, consider you’re driving down the mountain to go into State College as the sun rises or sets. You’ll find a few spots where the sun is bright and directly in your eyes—do you suddenly drop to the ground? — I hope not, since you’re driving down the mountain.

The light that Saul sees is blinding to him and it engulfs him and causes him to collapse—it definitely sounds a lot like the handful of times that we see throughout Scripture when people see the glory of God. Moses on Mount Sinai, some of the apostles on the Mount of Transfiguration and it seems that this revelation of Jesus to Saul only happened to Saul—as in, only he saw the light, which we’ll get back to in a few minutes.

When a voice speaks, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” This had to be terrifying and it had to cause great fear, we can see this fear in the reaction to the men who were traveling with him in v. 7, they “stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing [nothing].”

This voice asks “why are you persecuting me?” And Saul responds with, “Who are you, Lord,” before this voice responds with “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting . . . rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”

Note, that at this time, Saul’s use of the word Lord doesn’t necessarily mean that he believes, but rather, it means that he understood that this voice and this light demanded honor and respect. The use of the term Lord refers to honor and respect, not necessarily belief.

But also note, that when he recognizes that this voice is Jesus, he doesn’t try to argue or plead his case—he simply obeys what the voice tells him to do.

In vv. 8-9 we see that Saul heard this voice, “rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Again, consider the unique aspect of this light—it literally blinded him. And again, consider the similarities behind this light and the handful of times that people in the Bible saw the glory of God.

Moses sees God’s glory and it transforms his face in such a way that he literally reflected the light.

Some of the disciples see the transfiguration of Jesus and it’s described as a bright light that was blinding to them.

The implication being that when Saul is confronted by Jesus in Acts 9, he sees Jesus and the effects of seeing Jesus face to face blinds him.

So, Saul is now in Damascus, blinded, and refusing to eat or drink. Our text continues by shifting our focus to someone named Ananias who was a disciple of Jesus at Damascus.—let’s re-read vv. 10-20.

Saul Meets Ananias (10-20)

Acts 9:10–20 ESV

10 Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” 11 And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, 12 and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” 13 But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. 14 And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” 17 So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; 19 and taking food, he was strengthened. For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. 20 And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”

So, Ananias has a vision and in this vision, the Lord speaks to him. In vv. 10-16, we see this conversation between Jesus and Ananias.

It starts with God telling Ananias to go and do something. In v. 11, “the Lord said to him, ‘Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.’”

Clearly, what’s going on here is miraculous—both Ananias and Saul have visions—Ananias’ vision includes the instruction to go and meet this man named Saul; Saul’s vision is that a man named Ananias is going to come, pray for him, and lay his hands on him so that Saul could regain his sight.

But remember, Saul had been heavily persecuting the church, to the extent that people knew about Saul’s persecution of the church—the news had spread sufficiently enough that people in Damascus had heard of Saul.

And Ananias responds with this bit of pushback in vv. 13-14, “But Ananias answered, ‘Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.’”

From a human standpoint, Ananias’ pushback makes logical sense—if someone had a reputation for hurting Christians and you’re a Christian, what’s the likelihood that you’d want to go see this person? Slim to none.

I mean, we could put ourselves in the shoes of Ananias and the pushback that he has is probably the same pushback that we would express—why would we go up to this person and risk our own life and our own freedom?

And yet, how does God respond to Ananias? Look at vv. 15-16, “But the Lord said to him, ‘Go for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.’”

Despite Saul’s past (and really, it literally just changed within a week), God has plans for Saul and He has chosen Saul for something specific.

And what we see actually is the initial hint that Saul is about to be commissioned as an apostle by Jesus Christ to do amazing work on God’s behalf.

God describes that work simply—Saul will “carry [His] name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.”

Saul’s whole commission is to go and proclaim the name of Jesus, but his commission is different than the other apostles in that his primary focus is going to be on non-Jewish people.

Now, I want us to just consider this from a modern-day human perspective—knowing who Saul is, knowing what he has done—would you have selected Saul to do this sort of work?

Would you have selected someone who was known as a murderer and persecutor of Christians to go an proclaim the Gospel to Gentiles?

Most of us would probably say no; and yet, God chose Saul for this specific role.

Our text ends with Ananias obeying Jesus—he goes and prays for Saul, Saul is healed, baptized, and then he immediately goes and proclaims Jesus. What do we learn from these last few verses?

There’s three ideas that are evident in the last few verse: (1) Ananias obeyed; (2) Saul repented and completely changed; and (3) Saul’s authentic belief results in the proclamation of the Gospel. Let’s look at those ideas:

First, even when something didn’t completely make sense to Ananias, he still obeyed Jesus—we see this particularly in vv. 13-17. Ananias pushes back because he clearly doesn’t understand what’s going on—he’s confused and he’s concerned about what might happen to him, but when God tells him to go, he goes; and he does exactly what God told him to do by laying his hands on Saul and praying for him.

Second, genuine repentance results in a completely changed Saul—He literally goes from persecuting and murdering Christians, to repentance, and to direct obedience to Jesus Christ. It really shows us how much of a change is assumed when we talk about genuine repentance—that you’re literally changing your mind, changing your way, and changing your life.

And third, authentic belief in Jesus causes Saul to proclaim the Gospel without hesitation—He spent some time with the disciples in Damascus before he “immediately . . . proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’”

What we see from Saul’s conversion is both telling and eye-opening. If you truly believe in Jesus, you will change because repentance is a change of mind that results in changed behavior; and if you truly have tasted God’s mercy and grace, you will proclaim Jesus because you understand how great it is that Jesus has saved you.

Now, in the remaining few minutes, I want us to look at specific application; and in the case of this passage of Scripture, I think it would be best to keep the passage in one unit as we exegete the passage for our application.

In this passage, we see Jesus do a miraculous work in confronting Saul; and just like every other Gospel presentation given throughout the book of Acts, the primary point that Jesus makes concerns pointing out Saul’s sin before calling him to repentance. In the case of Saul, because he was also be called as an apostle, he physically sees Jesus or at least the glory of God before being commissioned to go and proclaim the Gospel to the gentiles, Israel, and the kings. What we see in a passage like Acts 9:1-19 is really two-fold: despite how we would respond to someone like Saul, the Gospel is powerful enough to save anyone and the Gospel results in true genuine change. Let’s break down those two ideas in our application:

Application

First, the Gospel is powerful enough to save anyone—just like Ananias who hears God’s command to go and pray for Saul, we all have people in our lives that we assume are so far gone that they won’t ever believe in Jesus.

Quite frankly, if anyone was too far gone, it’d probably be Saul—who literally murdered Christians.

And yet, God chooses him to go after his genuine repentance and proclaim the Gospel to a whole people group that hadn’t really heard the Gospel yet—the Gentiles.

Maybe, we need to reconsider whether people can be “too far gone” on this side of eternity—maybe we need to reconsider how we view unbelievers today before making the assumption that they’d never repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ.

If you want to look at it a different way, consider all the people who Jesus spent most of his time with—the assumption would be that He would spend His time with the religious elite or the Sanhedrin because they’re the ones making all the decisions, but instead:

Jesus spends the bulk of his time with people that the religious elite and the Sanhedrin already thought were too far gone—He spends the bulk of His time with people who were of ill-repute, but were willing to hear the Gospel, repent from their sins, and believe in Jesus.

And if you read closely, the life of Jesus, you see that typically when these people of ill-repute do repent, they’re looked on with suspicion by those who are in religious authority and we do the same exact thing.

When we hear of people who lived lives of tremendous sin repenting and believing, we typically look at them with suspicion (at least, at first), but the reality is that we really shouldn’t. Why not?

Because God can save whomever He wants, even someone who persecuted the church by murdering Christians, ripping families apart, and imprisoning people. What does this mean for us?

It means, that we cannot pick and choose who we proclaim the Gospel to—we can’t not present the Gospel to someone because we have a feeling that they’re not going to accept it.

God can save anyone—including those who have never been receptive to it before, including those who have been outrightly antagonistic towards it, including those who have never cared about it before.

The Gospel is powerful enough to save anyone because the God who empowers the Gospel is powerful enough to save anyone—so go and proclaim it to anyone who will listen, whether you think they’ll pay attention to it or not. Proclaim the Gospel to all.

Second, the Gospel results in true genuine change—you cannot be a Christian and remain exactly the same—this statement might offend, but the reality is that there are millions of people who claim to be Christian but we can tell they aren’t actually Christian because their salvation has never actually resulted in any true genuine change.

You might ask, how do we know that the Gospel needs to result in true genuine change and the answers three-fold:

Look at the example of Saul—who repented and goes from murdering people to following Jesus and proclaiming the Gospel in the synagogues.

While we’re at it, look at the examples of every apostle—all of whom weren’t really that great to begin with, but after hearing the Gospel, they change to reflect the Jesus they’re following.

Or maybe just consider the disciples who weren’t necessarily apostles.

In every example—the people radically are changed from being a complete unbeliever with no actual longing for God to absolutely desiring Him.

Or consider Jesus’ statement warning against false teachers, that you will know them by their fruit—that same principle applies to the average, every day person.

If the person claims to believe but they don’t exhibit any good fruit whether that’s the fruits of the Spirit or good works—they probably don’t actually believe in Jesus Christ.

And before you get it into your mind that we shouldn’t judge one another this way, the Bible actually teaches the opposite—to use right judgment when viewing one another and determining if they believe or if they’re a false teacher.

It isn’t that you can’t consider whether someone is a true believer or not, it’s that you are to do it with righteous intent and right judgment.

Lastly, consider what the word repent actually means—I think sometimes, we get it in our heads that repent just means that you’re sorry about your sin, (this is the modern-day definition of repentance), but that’s actually guilt not repentance.

The Greek word translated as repent is μετανοεω, which literally means to change your mind or to reorient your thinking—it literally means to be headed one direction and turning completely the other direction.

How do we know that the Gospel necessitates change? Because of the Gospel call itself—to repent, believe, and follow Jesus Christ.

If you hear the Gospel and don’t fundamentally change your mind and your direction or you don’t reorient your thinking, you might have had an emotional response, you might have had a “spiritual” moment, but you certainly aren’t a believer in Jesus Christ—true believers have been changed and are changing.

You might ask, but what about people that haven’t really changed even though they claim to believe?

Consider Matthew 7:21-23 “21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, in Your name did we not prophesy, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name do many miracles?’ 23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”

Not everyone who claims to believe actually do believe and the only way to really see this is by checking their fruit. Of course, we aren’t God, so we’ll never know absolutely for sure, but it does give us a good indicator as to whether or not they genuinely believe.

True belief in Jesus results in change.

Put simply, what we learn from Acts 9:1-19 is that the Gospel is powerful enough to save anyone (even if we think they’re too far gone), so (1) keep proclaiming the Gospel even to those who you might not think will ever believe; and (2) expect those who genuinely believe to have been changed and continue changing—if they aren’t changing, they probably don’t actually believe.

Pastoral Prayer

Congregational Singing

All I Have is Christ (389)