Sermon Tone Analysis

Have You Ever Been Given Something To Do By God But Your Flesh Didn’t Want To?

Some Of The Most Controversial Things Done In the Kingdom, Came From someone taking a risk that no one else dared to do..

Some Of The Most Controversial Things Done In the Kingdom, Came From someone taking a risk no one else dared to do..

Have you ever found yourself doing something with a great conviction and find out you where wrong?

Have you ever found yourself doing something with a great conviction and find out you where wrong?

What If The Way you see things are Wrong, What would it take for God to get you to see what he see’s?

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The hostility to Christianity of pre-Christian Saul presents both challenge and hope to any non-Christian.

The hope is that if God can turn the fiercest opponent of the Lord into his most willing servant, he has the ability to save anyone.

The challenge is not to be deceived by self-satisfaction.

Saul was quite content with his life spiritually.

But God’s sovereign grace arrested him.

Is It possible that all eyes are on you, waiting to see if you have been truly converted..

1. Paul’s Conversion to Christianity was an epic event, he went from being a jewish rabbi to the Most influential Apostles writing 13 of the twenty seven books of the New testament.

1. Pauls Conversion

I. Paul the enemy had hateful opposition to the disciples of the Lord and threatens them with Imprisonment and Murder.

II.

Paul isn’t just known for making threats, he helps bring about executions.

III.

Saul takes action: He goes to Caiaphas (4:6) and receives letters of introduction to the synagogues in Damascus, some 140 miles northeast.

He seeks to enlist their aid, or at least permission, to arrest any fugitive Hellenistic Jewish Christians and return them to Jerusalem for trial

Saul takes action.

He goes to Caiaphas (4:6) and receives letters of introduction to the synagogues in Damascus, some 140 miles northeast.

He seeks to enlist their aid, or at least permission, to arrest any fugitive Hellenistic Jewish Christians and return them to Jerusalem for trial

iV.

The hostility to Christianity of pre-Christian Saul presents both challenge and hope to any non-Christian.

The hope is that if God can turn the fiercest opponent of the Lord into his most willing servant, he has the ability to save anyone.

The hostility to Christianity of pre-Christian Saul presents both challenge and hope to any non-Christian.

The hope is that if God can turn the fiercest opponent of the Lord into his most willing servant, he has the ability to save anyone.

The challenge is not to be deceived by self-satisfaction.

Saul was quite content with his life spiritually.

But God’s sovereign grace arrested him.

The challenge is not to be deceived by self-satisfaction.

Saul was quite content with his life spiritually.

But God’s sovereign grace arrested him.

2. Saul’s Encounter with Christ: Saul travels to Damascus at midday, he experiences the divine presence: a light and voice from heaven addressing him.

I.

He is knocked Off his beast and falls to the ground..

Saul’s Encounter with Christ

II.

The voice gives the divine perspective on Paul’s activity.

With a repeated address the voice asks, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?

Jesus identifies with his disciples, his body

III.

Kicking Against the Pricks: fighting against God’s will only hurts yourself.

( “It is futile for you to resist your destiny (of becoming My apostle)

The voice gives the divine perspective on Paul’s activity.

With a repeated address (compare ; ; ; ; ) the voice asks, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?

Jesus identifies with his disciples, his body

“It is futile for you to resist your destiny (of becoming My apostle

Goad—(Heb.

malmad, only in ), an instrument used by ploughmen for guiding their oxen.

“The goad is a formidable weapon.

It is sometimes ten feet long, and has a sharp point.

Goad—(Heb.

malmad, only in ), an instrument used by ploughmen for guiding their oxen.

Shamgar slew six hundred Philistines with an ox-goad.

“The goad is a formidable weapon.

It is sometimes ten feet long, and has a sharp point.

We could now see that the feat of Shamgar was not so very wonderful as some have been accustomed to think.”

In , a different Hebrew word is used, dorban, meaning something pointed.

The expression , “It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks”, i.e., against the goad, was proverbial for unavailing resistance to superior power.

III.

For Saul the physical effects are devastating.

Getting up from the ground, he opens his eyes and discovers he is blind!

Led by the hand into the city, he neither eats nor drinks for three days.

For Saul the physical effects are devastating.

Getting up from the ground, he opens his eyes and discovers he is blind!

Led by the hand (; ) into the city, he neither eats nor drinks for three days.

A. But the spiritual effects on Saul will last a lifetime.

The spiritual significance of a Jewish rabbi’s being physically blinded by the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ is not lost on Saul or Luke

4 Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe.

They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News.

They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.

4 Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe.

They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News.

They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.

Major themes in Luke–Acts are God’s final salvation as a recovery of sight to the blind and as a light to the nations

But the spiritual effects on Saul will last a lifetime.

The spiritual significance of a Jewish rabbi’s being physically blinded by the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ is not lost on Saul or Luke ().

Major themes in Luke–Acts are God’s final salvation as a recovery of sight to the blind and as a light to the nations

Major themes in Luke–Acts are God’s final salvation as a recovery of sight to the blind and as a light to the nations

Major themes in Luke–Acts are God’s final salvation as a recovery of sight to the blind and as a light to the nations

As Saul meditates on the light during those three days of darkness, then, the greatness of the divinely promised final salvation available only in the last person he saw must become more and more clear and precious

B. Saul meditates on the light during those 3 days of darkness, What is Saul to make of his blindness?

It is not a punishment nor an indication of divine disfavor nor simply a concrete proof of the vision.

An acted parable, it shows Saul the spiritual bankruptcy of his pre-Christian condition.

As Saul meditates on the light during those three days of darkness, then, the greatness of the divinely promised final salvation available only in the last person he saw must become more and more clear and precious (Acts 26:18).

And the role he is to play in becoming a light to the Gentiles must become increasingly evident (26:17).

What is Saul to make of his blindness?

It is not a punishment (as Hamm 1990:70) nor an indication of divine disfavor (as Hedrick 1981:419) nor simply a concrete proof of the vision (as Haenchen 1971:323).

An acted parable, it shows Saul the spiritual bankruptcy of his pre-Christian condition.

: “And the Lord replied, ‘I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting.

16 Now get to your feet!

For I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant and witness.

Tell people that you have seen me, and tell them what I will show you in the future.

17 And I will rescue you from both your own people and the Gentiles.

Yes, I am sending you to the Gentiles 18 to open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God.

Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God’s people, who are set apart by faith in me.’

: “And the Lord replied, ‘I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting.