Yes, we really can change -- and we must

Let’s take a quick poll. Here’s how this works, real simple: I’m going to ask a question or say a statement, and if it applies to you, you raise your hand. One caveat: the questions are going to get harder to answer and require more honesty as we go along. I’ll be honest if you’ll be honest.

Raise your hand if there is someone in your life who is challenging to love.

Keep your hands raised if that person, in your mind right now, is highly unlikely ever to change.

Raise your hand if you have ever tried to have a conversation with this person about the things they need to change, but you didn't because you didn't want to damage the relationship.

Raise your hand if that conversation actually resulted in that person changing themselves?

Keep your hand raised if you have ever imagined what it would be like if you could be done with that person?

Round one is done. Pat yourselves on the back. Now it’s going to get harder.

Raise your hand if there is someone in your life who believes there is something about you that needs to change.

Keep your hands raised if you agree with that person that this thing about you, whatever it is, needs to change.

Now keep your hands raised if you have tried to change this thing about yourself but you have been unsuccessful.

Raise your hands if you have been discouraged about this.

Change is a touchy subject. There are those who would say that people can’t change. “Who he is is who he is.” There are those who would say that a person shouldn’t have to change. “How dare you suggest I should change something about myself?

Yet deep down, we know we need to change. There are things about us that we desperately need to change.

And to make it even more complicated, the kind of change we need is not just surface-level. It’s not behavior only. Man, it’s deep-seated, isn’t it? It’s our assumptions, it’s our attitudes, our desires and habits. It’s under the surface. In other words, what we need is a change of heart - a new heart.

And as Christians we know not only that this kind of change is needed. We know that this kind of change is possible. The passage we’re looking at this morning puts this kind of change on full display. Because here we see that Saul of Tarsus, the persecutor, becomes Paul the apostle.

[SLIDE: SAUL, THE ENEMY OF GOD]

#1: Saul, the enemy of God

Saul, the enemy of God.

See for yourself. Look at verses 1-2: “But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way” — that is the way of Christ, as the early Christians were called — “so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women” — that shows Saul’s violence and ruthlessness — “he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.”

Notice with me where Saul is going. Saul is going to Damascus. This shows Saul’s commitment to what he was doing. This wasn’t like hopping in your car and driving out to Nashville. Damascus is 150 miles from Jerusalem [Hughes p127]. That took about a week back then.

This would be the equivalent of getting in your car right now, driving up 18, hitting I-40 up in Raleighand then driving west all the way to Los Angeles, stopping along the way to see your favorite sights and spend the night somewhere each night. Except that’s in our air-conditioned cars. Saul was on foot, or at best on a donkey. That is the length Saul was willing to go to in order to persecute Christians! This is commitment.

Christianity was still part of Judaism at this point; Christians met and worshiped in the synagogues. And Saul is on his way to Damascus to do what he presumably has been doing all over the place. The man who took the gospel to the Gentiles and wrote 13 of the books in the NT — here we find him sniffing out Christians, having temple police assist him in arresting them, tying them up and bringing them back to Jerusalem to stand trial and go to prison.

[SLIDE: ACTS 26:9-11]

Could we say that Saul had issues? Could we say that Saul was a fanatic? Here’s the thing: Saul himself might have said that Saul was a fanatic.

Acts 26:9–11 ESV

“I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities.

Do you think it is fair to say that Saul was an enemy of God? I think you’ll agree it is fair to say that Saul was an enemy of God.

But you know what we can’t say? We can’t say Saul was crazy. Saul was not crazy. Saul was not delusional. Saul really believed that Christians were wrong, that they were making a serious theological mistake — he really believed they were committing heresy. Why did he believe that?

[SLIDE: SAUL’S LOGIC]

Saul’s logic:

Jesus died

Jesus was crucified

Jesus was cursed (Deut. 21:22-23)

Saul: “How can Jesus possibly be the Messiah?”

This is a dangerous group of people, and they must be stopped before they destroy our faith!

This is Saul, the enemy of God.

What about us? Are we any different from Saul? Now, yes. But what about before we were saved? Before Christ found us? You and I were no less enemies of God than Saul is here. You say, “But Saul was way worse than me. Saul persecuted the church.” Friend, you fail to understand that it is not so much individual sin that sends a person to hell; it is a refusal to come to Christ and be saved. Because the issue is not how bad are you; the issue is what have you done with Jesus Christ?

Most of you are familiar with Eph. 2:8-9? “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8-9 ESV).

Well, right before that, we read this: “You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked”, the Bible says, “following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience — among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just like the rest of mankind” (Eph. 2:1-3 ESV).

Why does the Bible remind us of our sinful past? Two reasons: 1) to make it less appealing and more appalling for us to think of ever going back there, and 2) that we might live with the joy of knowing that if we were enemies of God when He found us, how great and deep must be the Father’s love for us.

The curtains go down on Saul, the enemy of God.

Scene two: the curtains come up on, Jesus, the Lover, Pursuer, and Savior of Saul.

[SLIDE: JESUS, THE LOVER, PURSUE, SAVIOR]

#2: Jesus, the Lover, Pursuer, and Savior of Saul

What strikes you most about this story of Saul’s road to Damascus journey?

What strikes me most about this is that Jesus was the last person Saul was seeking when Jesus found him.

Look with me at verse 3 to see what I mean: “Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him.” Blinding, brilliant, divine glory. Saul is immediately arrested, “falling to the ground”, verse 4 tells us — overwhelmed, terrified, cowering.

Last summer, about a year ago this month, we were at the beach and packing up to come home from our vacation. It had been thundering pretty loudly and there had been some pretty bright flashes of lightning that were really, oddly visible for it to be mid morning.

My dad and I are standing at the passenger side of our van and we’re telling my parents goodbye as we’re about to set out on our way in separate cars. And then suddenly and shockingly there is this brilliant flash — really it looked more like a fireball. And at the same exact time, an absolutely deafening crash of thunder. I felt it right here. Lightning came down somewhere very, very close to us. And it really did almost knock you over. It was so bright and so brilliant and so loud and so deafening that you almost instinctively fall to the ground.

And I suspect that is something like what Saul experienced — except for Saul it’s not a brilliant and deafening thunderstorm. Saul is arrested and immediately debilitated by the blinding glory of the One whose voice the lightning obeys!

Saul is laying on the ground. Simultaneously with the lightning of divine glory, Saul hears the thunder of the voice of the risen Christ. “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” With that question, that piercing question, Jesus lodged Himself deep in Saul’s heart and His conscience, changing Him dramatically and forever.

The change that Saul undergoes here — we call it getting saved. The NT calls it regeneration, conversion, being born again. You’re not perfect. But after being saved, you’ll never be the same. And this change is available to anyone and everyone who is willing to turn to the Lord in faith and say, “Help.”

Pastor Kent Hughes says there are two realizations that Saul probably had at this point. There were two things that hit Saul very hard when he heard Jesus speak those words, “Why are you persecuting Me?”

[SLIDE: TWO REALIZATIONS]

Two realizations:

Jesus Christ is not dead, but alive

Saul was not merely persecuting Christians; He was opposing God

Wouldn’t we expect Jesus to say, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting my church? Why are you persecuting my people?” But Jesus says, “Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”

We went to DC this past week. I took a week of vacation and we drove up there with the kids. Yesterday we were driving through the city and while stopped at a stoplight, a young homeless man walked across the street in front of our car. I lived there. I’m somewhat used to that. What I’m not used is what happened. When I saw him, my first thought was, “That homeless man is someone’s little boy.” Instantly I put my children is his place. I felt this crushing weight of realizing that no matter what I do as a parent, no matter how faithfully I love and care for my kids, I cannot ensure that they don’t end wind up in that position. It’s a scary thought, because really what parenting is, is sending your own heart out into the world to be ripped to shreds. As parents and grandparents, that’s something we feel so deeply that what happens to our kids. it happens to us too.

“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting my church? Why are you persecuting my people?” But Jesus says, “Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”

[CHANGE TONE]

Saul says, “Who are you, Lord?” And notice what Jesus says: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” Friend, if you belong to Jesus by faith, He holds you closer than you hold your own children. He feels your pain like it is His.

But notice this, it’s just as important. Jesus does not dwell on Saul’s sin. Jesus does not dwell on Saul’s sin.

We see that time and again throughout the NT. Jesus is the perfect model of truth blended with grace — holiness and love — justice and mercy. Jesus calls us out for our sin, of course He does. He loves us too much not too. But Jesus also forgives us and moves us past it; He does not bring it up again or throw it in our faces.

But that doesn’t mean that our sin does’t leave its mark on us, you know? Three days Saul is blind. The men who are with him have to walk in front of Saul and lead him by the hand into Damascus.

Blindness in the ancient world was a symbol of helplessness. It also becomes a symbol of refusal. Willful refusal to acknowledge the truth.

I’m just going to go ahead and say that when I was a kid and particularly a teenager, I had a crummy attitude. I mean, it was really bad. I would talk back to my parents. I would talk back to my teachers sometimes even, which was not characteristic of me when I was a child. I would lie to my parents. I was hard-hearted. There was a lot about me that needed to change.

I remember this one thing in particular I had an issue with, and that was my attitude toward clothing. Appearance. Reputation. I was incredibly stuck-up when it came to the clothes I wore. I honestly felt like my life was so terrible because I didn’t have clothes that came from Structure. Never mind that a pair of socks at Structure was $20. Never mind that a pair of jeans was $40. And this was in 1997.

If you ever watch Seinfeld, there’s an episode where he gets a suede leather jacket and he pays some crazy amount of money for it because of how the jacket made him feel. He said, “When I wear this jacket, there is no social situation I cannot face, no challenge I cannot overcome.” That’s how I felt when I was wearing a brand new sweater from Structure — the kind that had the zipper about here going up to the collar. But when I was wearing something from Goody’s, man —

Now I wear clothes from Walmart or maybe Kohl’s and I like it. 15-year-old Dustin says to 43-year-old Dustin, “Dude, what has happened to your life?” But 43-year-old Dustin likes the fact that he can wear decent clothes and provide for his family. By God’s mercy, my attitude changed.

But more than Saul’s attitude has changed. Saul had been persecuting Christians. He refused to recognize the truth that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah. Now Jesus makes Saul blind physically even as he opens his eyes spiritually God simply reached down, claimed Saul as His own, and gave him a new heart. Then, with that new heart, Saul repented and trusted in Jesus. And Saul was changed.

[SLIDE: PAUL, A VIOLENT PERSECUTOR]

Ephesians 2:4–5 ESV

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

The curtains go down on Jesus, the lover and pursuer and Savior of Saul.

Notice with me next: Saul, a violent persecutor turned enthusiastic preacher.

[SLIDE: PAUL, A VIOLENT PERSECUTOR…]

#3: Paul, a violent persecutor-turned-enthusiastic preacher

But before the curtains come up on Paul, we first meet a man named Ananias. The Lord has an assignment for a man named Ananias who only shows up here in the NT. Look with me at verses 11-12: “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.”

But Ananias has heard of Saul, the notorious persecutor. Verses 13-14: “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.” If he could have gotten away with murdering Christians and not just arresting them, he probably would have.

So Ananias is understandably hesitant.

Look at verse 15: “But the Lord said to him, ‘Go, for he is a hosen 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 my name” (Acts 9:15-16 ESV). But the Lord says, “I’ve heard your concerns, Ananias. Go.” Why? Because the Lord knew what Ananias did not yet know: Saul is a new man.

Saul’s name does not become Paul until a few chapters later, but the change of Saul’s name was meant to reflect a change of character. Saul is no longer the persecutor; Saul is becoming Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. And the Lord has a job for Saul.

So Ananias puts his personal fears aside. Ananias doers the unthinkable: he goes to minister to someone who, as far as he knows, wants him dead. This would be like Christians going and praying in Jesus’ name over a radical Muslim. He addresses him warmly and encourages him: “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” (Acts 9:17 ESV). This encouragement from Ananias is meant to be a channel of God’s love and encouragement for Saul.

Saul regains his sight; he’s filled with the Holy Spirit; he’s baptized; he eats for the first time since encountering Christ. And in the next episode, Saul is preaching.

That’s Paul, a violent persecutor-turned-enthusiastic preacher.

No one’s heart is so hardened that God’s love cannot melt it. No one is so far gone that grace cannot reach them. “But his heart is so hardened, Dustin -- it would take a miracle for him to be saved!” Yes…and? Isn’t any conversion of a sinner a miracle? In an instant, his hardened heart was shattered by pursuing and determined grace of God. God is more than up to the task.

[RETURN TO TITLE SLIDE]

Conclusion and call for response

What needs to change in your life?

This is not a time for us to think about how other people need to change. You may be so frustrated with your spouse or sibling or coworker or you child that you can’t see straight. But you can’t do anything about that right now. God is concerned about you. What would you like Him to do for you? What change do you need to see? I’m talking about moral change.

Is it greed? Fear? Lust? Bitterness? Dishonesty and deception? Is there some secret sin? Envy? Jealousy? Resentment? Maybe for you it’s perfectionism. Shame. Gossip.

I want you to do something with me this morning. I want you to bow your heads. This is not going to be a raise your hand time. I am asking you to use your imagination to draw near to God.

I want you to imagine that thing you need to change. Imagine that you are standing outside a room with a closed door. Jesus is in the room. And Jesus comes over to the door, opens it, and with a smile He invites you in. Imagine that you take him up on his invitation and you come inside.

Now imagine that you’re carrying your bitterness or your envy or your lust or your adultery or deception of whatever it is. Imagine that you come through the door and you start to put down your heavy load on the floor at the door. You think, surely he doesn’t want this. I’ll just put this down and then go to Him.

Now I want you to imagine as your bending down to lay down your load, Jesus catches you by the arm, gently, firmly — and he says, “no, I want that too.”

You start to realize that maybe Jesus wants, even the worst parts of you. So you bend down, but you’re hesitant — because this is outside your comfort zone, and you pick up your adultery or your bundle of lies or your greed. And carrying it, you start to come down to the front of the room where Jesus is.

And when you get down to the front of the room where he is, you’re surprised. Jesus is not upset with you. He is not angry or disappointed with you. He is not ashamed of you. He is pleased with you. He is glad to be with you. He is glad you came in, glad that you’re finally bringing your struggle to Him. And joy and relief wash over you, because the One you thought was done with you a long time ago — His patience has not run out.

And when you get down to where Jesus is, Jesus is holding out his hand. He wants the burden and the sin that you’ve brought in. You’re still uncertain: “Is this for real?”

He doesn’t answer. He’s still just standing there completely silent, arms outstretched. And you feel, for the first time in your life maybe, that this is a completely safe place to be. You are completely accepted here. He’s not soft-pedaling your sin or sweeping it under the rug. But neither is He condemning you for it. He just wants you — all of you, sin too.

So you pick up the weight — whatever it is for you — and you’re suddenly aware of how heavy it is. How have you carried this thing for so long? You’re struggling to hold it. And Jesus — He takes the burden that we were holding with both hands and with all our strength, and He effortlessly takes it from us with one hand and sets it down. Our burdens are nothing to Him.

And then you start handing Him other things, too. You’re suddenly aware of how much you’ve been dealing with, how much you’ve been carrying. Now maybe you’re handing him your perfectionism, your fear of dying, or maybe unresolved grief that you never processed.

And as all of this is happening, you’re realizing something truly life-changing. You have not come to the end of His grace and mercy. You realize that here there is an inexhaustible, everlasting love for you, despite what you did or how many times you’ve done it. You feel free for the first time in your life. You feel at peace. You feel loved and accepted. Jesus has taken those things and given you His life. And now those things that you’ve wanted to change about yourself, you now feel like you can do it. You want to do it. You want more of the freedom and peace and acceptance you’ve experienced.

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

And church, you’re able to do this with Jesus because you’ve already said yes to Him. You’ve given Jesus your life, you’ve trusted Him with your salvation, you’ve chosen to trust that His death was for you and that His blood shed that day at Calvary atoned for your sins.

I don’t know where each of you is at spiritually today. I suspect that since it’s homecoming, there are some of you here today who, if you’re honest, you’re not here a whole lot. The problem with that is not so much that you’re not coming to church. The problem, for now, is what that means. Why do you come only on important days? Could it be that, for some of you, maybe you don’t have a relationship with Him?

If you haven’t done this, if you’ve never given your life to Jesus, if you’ve never turned from sin and trusted in Him, you can. Today. To you individually, personally, specifically, He calls you by name and says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3:20 ESV). The decision has to be yours. No one can make it for you. But Jesus’ arms are wide open for you today too.

Can people change? Yes. Jesus Christ offers real change. You handed your burdens to Him. That doesn’t mean you’ll never struggle with them again. You’ll sin again, probably today. But we can take comfort that we have a relationship with Jesus that no sin or burden can ever break. When you fall, He reaches out His hand and says, “Are you ready to try again?”

He stands ready to receive from us our sin and to give us His righteousness and His life as many times as we need it. He is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. And through Him, real change is possible.