Acts 9 The Big Bad Wolf Becomes a Shepherd

As we come to Acts chapter 9 this morning we get to see the story of a man who experienced Amazing Grace as much if not more than anyone else in history.

(ESV)

The Conversion of Saul

Let me give you his Bio:

9 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.

His resume if you will.

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.

This man was born to a family of means. He was born into a world where most people were slaves this man was born a citizen of Rome. This gave him a social status above most people he would encounter.

Saul Proclaims Jesus in Synagogues

The only way one could become a citizen and free person in Rome was if one acquired enough money to pay for it.

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.

If one served so well that their master freed them. Or through distinguished military service.

Or if Rome granted this title to a family in a place that it took over because they had a great deal of money or standing in the community.

Or if one was born to a family already free.

This man was born to a free family a family that are citizens of Rome an Greece. Of a great city called Tarsus.

So he comes from a well to do family. A family that is not looked down on but looked up to.

And he is driven and smart. So smart in fact that he is taken in by one of the leading scholars of his day to study under and learn the Scriptures from.

A man named Gamaliel.

So he puts his mind to work and climbs quickly through the ranks of his religious sect the Pharisees.

The most rigid and devoted of all Jewish people. Other people talk about loving God.

These guys prove it through their devotion day in and day out.

They fast constantly, twice a week in fact.

How many of ya’ll would like to fast twice a week?

They follow the Jewish dietary laws down to the letter.

No cheeseburgers.

No catfish.

No BBQ

They give to the poor.

They do not ever miss a church service.

In fact they lead the church services.

And this man, this Saul of Tarsus that we look at this morning was a guy who stood head and shoulders above all the rest.

He knows exactly who he is descended from.

He is from the tribe of Benjamin. He is named after Israel’s first king. Saul. A man who literally stood head and shoulders above all others in his day.

So Saul has devoted his life to earning God’s love and earning his place in heaven.

I mean when it comes to being a good person he would put everyone of us and anyone we have ever known to shame. He was as good as it gets.

There really is no debating that.

But his story is the story of Amazing Grace.

In fact he says this of himself…

(NIV)

15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.

Or if you memorized it in the KJV, I am chief.

How could Saul of Tarsus go from being one of the most devout Jews ever to being the chief of sinners?

Easily actually. He believed that he could earn God’s favor and God’s love.

If there was ever proof that simple blind faith in something is not good enough Saul of Tarsus is it.

He had more faith and devotion to his religion than any one of us but it was not good enough.

Why? Because it isn’t about our devotion it is about having a relationship with Jesus.

Let’s look at where Saul’s religious devotion took him.

(ESV)

Saul Ravages the Church

8 And Saul approved of his execution.

Remember this was Stephen that Saul is approving of being executed. A man whose only crime was preaching about Jesus.

A really long sermon about Jesus…which I don’t think is a crime…I don’t know maybe he made them late for the buffet…

But anyway Stephen simply preached Jesus and Saul presided over his execution….

And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. 2 Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. 3 But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

So basically if the People of God, the church are sheep Saul is the big bad wolf.

He is the wolf that has come to gobble up the sheep…look at the way the church is described here…

They are scattered.

And what is Saul doing?

He is ravaging the sheep the way a wolf would ravage a herd of sheep.

This is violent language against God’s people.

Skip forward to…

(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.

He has volunteered and asked for a new mission. He apparently believes there are some Christians in Damascus so he wants to go and throw them in jail.

Saul reminds me of a dog we had growing up.

Lightening was his name. Man I loved that dog. He was probably the most loyal dog I have ever seen or had. He was so protective over me and my brother.

I mean all he had to do was think that someone or something was threatening us and he would attack. If you showed up at our house and we weren’t there he would attack.

He was vicious. Like some dogs bark then bite, lightening skipped the barking and simply went into attack mode.

If he saw what he thought was a threat he would attack. Now we lived out where no one else was, it wasn’t like we lived in a neighborhood or anything.

So no public danger or anything like that. Don’t think that…but he was a guard dog. He was always looking for a threat and he was going to get rid of that threat.

That is Saul of Tarsus. He really truly believes that the greatest threat to the glory of God is this Jesus and His followers.

He believes that Christianity is going to undo his religion. And well to be honest he is right. Judaism is never the same after Christianity sweeps through it.

But he sees a threat so he is in attack mode. He is breathing threats against the church but he has already attacked. The Big bad wolf is coming to blow this whole house down.

I know I’m mixing metaphors but you get the idea right?

But the crazy thing is, this wolf is about to be changed….look at verse 3…

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.

Jesus meets with Saul on his road of destruction and says why are you persecuting me?

Now remember in Saul’s mind he is going after people not the Lord. But for God and For Jesus to go after His church is to go after Him. Saul is not just persecuting the followers of Jesus he is persecuting Jesus himself.

You can’t attack the church without attacking Jesus. They are one in the same…

(ESV)

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.

The picture God gives us here is just unbelieviable.

This guy, saul who thought he had it all figured out who thought he saw the world so well. Is struck blind. This guy who is marking out his own path is now having to be led around by the hand because he no longer knows the way.

So for three days he can’t see and he doesn’t eat and he doesn’t drink. He is simply there in darkness waiting on something to happen…

Simply waiting on the next step. Look at verse 10…

(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.”

So this guy Ananias gets a call from God.

Hey Ananias I need you to go down and see this guy named Saul of Tarsus he has seen a vision of a guy named Ananias coming in to lay hand on him so that he can see again.

Imagine being Ananias…

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.”

So Ananias is like umm Lord I think you got the wrong number I don’t really want to talk to the guy who is killing folks for following you.

I mean can you blame him?

We just thought God asked us to do things that pushed us out of our comfort zones…

So he answers him in verse 15…

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.”

Wow so think about this for a minute.

This guy who had been the persecutor of the church. His persecution seems to be what really drove the Christians out of Jerusalem and sent everyone running off to hide.

He is so bad that he is a household name.

He is as Jewish as they come.

But it’s this guy who has been chosen to preach the gospel to the Gentiles?

Like least likely to be the Gentile preacher is the guy who chose as his profession to destroy anyone who would let Gentiles in the church.

But that is the way that God works isn’t?

He’s going to preach to Gentiles, Kings and the children of Israel.

Notice this last sentence though,

And I will show him how much he will suffer for my name’s sake.

Jesus does not hide the fine print. He is going to show Saul from the very beginning everything it is going to cost him to follow him.

Saul just like us goes into his relationship with Christ understanding that it isn’t going to be easy…

I mean he may not tell us everything that is going to happen to us but he makes it clear that anyone who follows after him is going to suffer for it.

The promise is not come to Jesus and your life will be rosey. The promise is come to Jesus and you will receive a life worth living. A life of eternal value and purpose…

You see before Saul thought he knew what his purpose was but now he is going to find real purpose and real meaning in Christ.

IN fact he is going to look back at his life later on and in reflection is going to say this…

(ESV)

13 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. 14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles,

Notice what Saul realized…before he was even born God had a purpose for his life. To preach to the gentiles about Jesus.

Guys he has a purpose for your life. Now his purpose and your purpose could be two very different things. Remember Saul thought his purpose was to kill Christians and be a good pharisee.

But God had other plans.

You may think your purpose is to be successful and make a lot of money and be well respected but he may call you to go to the mission field and serve in some little known place that no one has ever heard of.

He may have set you aside to serve in the ministry and pastor his people.

He maybe have set you aside to be successful and make a lot of money and use that influence and those resources to make his name great.

I don’t know what His plan is for your life, but He does. Are you seeking out his face and trying to discern what His purpose is for your life?

If not would you even now being praying and asking him to show you what he wants you to do?

Look at verse 17…

(ESV)

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.

So here we see the role of Ananias in the transformation of Saul. Ananias takes him in and serves him. He introduces himself and tells him why he is there.

He is to help him on his journey with Jesus. Jesus sends us in to help people grow in their relationship with him. This is what we call discipleship.

Where we walk along side those who are committed to Christ teaching them what it means to follow Him. This is a mutual commitment. A commitment on the part of people like Ananias. People who know the Lord and are walking with him.

And a commitment on the part of people like Saul who meet Jesus and are changed by him to walk with him.

We are called to go out to them and share Jesus with them and as they become his followers to walk with them and hold them accountable to what His word says.

And after this Saul is baptized. You are going to see all through Acts when someone becomes a believer they are baptized….

And then we are going to see here he is truly changed look at verse 20…

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.

So there is a complete and total transformation that happens here.

No one can believe that this guy, this guy named Saul is now preaching about Jesus. They are standing around scratching their heads saying, wait a minute, is this a joke?

Like are we on Candid camera or something? or did we just get punknd?

Surely this guy who came here to throw these people in prison isn’t preaching about Jesus saying he is the Christ.

But sure enough he got stronger and stronger and stronger and he was able to confound the Jews who lived in Damascus.

All that knowledge he had of the promises of God about the coming savior all clicked and came together.

Everything that he had been through up to this point in his life made sense and he was able to use all the knowledge he had and actually shut down the arguments that any of the people who would question that Jesus was the Christ.

Here is the craziest thing about God’s grace. He can change anyone who surrenders to Jesus.

The Big Bad Wolf becomes a sheep.

(ESV)

7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

Hear what he is saying,

He is saying I surrendered Everything For Him!

All of the advantages he had up to that point in his life are left behind. I surrender all all to Jesus I give.

He gave up his plans.

He gave up his fight.

He gave up his life

He gave up his idea of being a good person and chose instead the only righteousness that is available.

The righteousness that comes through faith in Christ.

He realized on that road on his knees that he was not able to stand before this holy God.

It didn’t matter how good he was or how hard he tried, he was never going to be able to earn his favor.

So he surrendered.

To Surrender means total abandon.

He says my resume all my stuff all my achievements are all lost.

He in fact says he suffered the loss of all things.

He says I’d rather have Jesus than the whole world.

Take the world and give me Jesus.

If we are going to follow Jesus we must surrender. Lay down arms we must be willing to do whatever he says.

We have to understand that we have nothing to offer him that we nothing to bribe him with. The only proper response to Jesus is surrender.

To say I give up.

I have no good deeds to offer you.

I have nothing I can use to bargain with you.

I am not a good person I need you to save me.

One half of understanding the gospel is believing that you are so bad and so sinful that the only way you could ever be right with God is if he sent his only son to die for you.

You see the hard part for so many people is that they are good people. They do what is right for the most part.

They are better than their neighbors.

They are religious. They are good folks.

But guys hell is full of good people. Being a good person is not what God demands.

He demands that you be perfect.

I mean compare yourself to Saul of Tarsus this morning. You are not even in the same league when it comes to goodness when it comes to pedigree when it comes to commitment he has you beat hands down. It’s not even close.

But he was not good enough and neither are you.

You need Jesus to stand in your place and play your price.

So the first half is believing you are bad enough that you need salvation.

The second half is believing that God loves you enough to save you despite who you are.

Which is also true.

Saul understood how bad he was, but he also believed that God loved him so much that he sent Jesus to save sinners including him who was the worst one of all.

Listen to how he describes himself…

(ESV)

7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

It’s like God takes the worst people and makes them the most effective for his purposes.

He makes it clear that yes he is the least but he does declare that yes he is an apostle that is sent one. That is a leader of God’s church.

IN some ways you could say the big bad wolf went from being a sheep to being a shepherd.

The Big Bad Wold Became a Sheep and God makes him a shepherd.

God takes the Big Bad Wolf and turns him into a shepherd. the one who used to hunt sheep for a living now protects them and guides them.

The Greatest Enemy the church has ever known becomes the greatest missionary the world would ever see.

With the same passion and desire he had to destroy the church he now has to preach the gospel.

This man goes on to be used by God to reach what was the known world at the time with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This man goes on to be used by God to reach what was the known world at the time with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

He goes from being the big bad wolf to a sheep to being a shepherd.

How? why?

Amazing Grace. How Sweet the Sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now i’m found was blind but now i see.

This is a story of amazing grace because the least likely person to trust on Christ is the one who is convinced he doesn’t need him.

I mean if you are wallowing in addiction and sinfulness and your life is a mess, it’s easy to see how much you need someone to change your heart and your life.

I mean the tax collectors the prostitutes the sinners of the day flocked to Jesus.

But the self righteous well they killed him and hunted his followers.

Jesus said it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter heaven.

In other words it takes a miracle for someone who has it all to realize that they need Christ.

Maybe this morning you are someone who has never put your faith in Christ because you don’t believe you need him.

Maybe like saul of tarsus you come from a good family you are smart you have done well for yourself and you have a very clear plan for your life.

You’re a good person and all that.

But if you do not have Christ as your lord then you do not have heaven in your future. .

WE have all disobeyed him we have all come up short of the standard. We have all sinned against him.

He calls us all to repent of our sins and be saved.

You need to repent and say Lord Jesus I need you to save me.

And in his amazing grace he will.