Not Your Past, But Your Future

Introduction

Growing up one of my favorite Disney movies was the Lion king and it still is today. I felt like I related to the character of Simba. Now I didn’t love the movie because his dad dies, I didn’t love the movies because he runs away. or because he meets up with his lost love, or that Simba returns to save Pride Rock from his evil uncle. The reason I loved the movie is because it told my generation that the past didn’t define us, that we could be anything we wanted to be. Simba did eventually choose to return to his home and save his family but that was a choice he made, not something that was forced on him.

I always felt the best song in the movie was Hakuna matata and its message “the past is in the past. Leave the past behind you.” This idea that no matter how I screwed up in the past I always had a chance to be redeemed in the future.

This is a concept we in the church sometimes have a hard time with. While we express the idea that we are offered free grace, we seem to think that it is our past that defines us. Have you ever said to yourself “I am not worthy of God’s forgiveness?” or “I did nothing to deserve God forgiveness.” Well today is your lucky day, because I am here to tell you Hakuna Matata. Leave the past behind you, God doesn’t care about your past, God is only concerned with your future.

In our Scripture today we read about someone who certainly did nothing to deserve God’s forgiveness. So why is it that God put so much stock in Saul and what he would do?

Look Not to Your Past

(vs. 1-2)

Saul was an awful person

We meet him in Acts 7:58.

Stoning of Steven

We read that Saul approved of the stoning

Acts 8:1 NIV

And Saul approved of their killing him. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.

Also from Acts 8:1, we are lead to believe that Saul was the leader of the persecutions

When we meet him again at the beginning of Acts 9 we read that...

Acts 9:1–2 NIV

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

This was no man that should be used to lead people to Christ

Many of us have that same feeling about our pasts.

We may have broken laws

We may have broken God’s trust

We may have even cursed God or persecuted believers.

This leads us to think we are not worthy of God

How many of us at one time or another have been a Saul.

Be Transformed in the Present

(vs 3-6)

Saul was not looking to be converted

He was on his way to arrest Christians in Damascus.

He had his mind set on the mission

He certainly would have not desired to be a believer

God had a plan so Jesus spoke to him

God desired more for Saul

Acts 9:15 NIV

But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel.

It was not by any work of Saul’s that he was saved, it was only through Christ

In fact Saul was doing the opposite.

We are not saved by our works but only by our faith

Ephesians 2:8 NIV

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—

It is a free gift

Sometimes it is offered to us

Sometimes it is forcefully given

But it’s always free

This Free Gift Offers Transformation

We are made into new creations

2 Peter 1:4 NIV

Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

This is not some future reward but a present offering

We are offered to participate now

Saul was offered and when he accepted his eyes were opened

Acts 9:18 NIV

Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized,

So the question is will you follow the example of Saul and accept the free gift, will you give your life fully to Christ.

Conclusion

This free gift offered to Saul by Christ meant a radical change in his life. We ready that he gets up goes to the synagogs and preaches the good news of Christ. Saul also changes his name to Paul, to represent the new creation working in his life. He submitted his life to the will of God and became the greatest missionary the church has ever had. Paul took the Gospel out of Jerusalem and spread it throughout the gentile world.

Life was not always easy for Paul, he had arguments with his traveling companions, he had arguments with the other apostles who ran the church. Paul was imprisoned several times. Once he was beaten within an inch of his life. He was eventually arrested, and sent to Rome to be tried by the authorities there as a Roman citizen. While in Rome he spent many years on house arrest. Then, under the emperor Nero, Paul was executed. But all the while Paul rejoiced in Christ.

In his letter to the Romans Paul wrote... Romans 5:1-5

Romans 5:1–5 NIV

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

So let us all choose to accept this amazing gift that is freely being offered to us, so that we may have hope no matter what life throws at us. Let us pray