Sermon Tone Analysis

“He’ll never change.”

“That’s just the way she is.”

“He’s too aggressive.”

“I wish she wouldn’t talk to me with that tone of voice.”

“You should be more humble.”

“You only think about yourself.”

“You need to accept me unconditionally because I’ll never change.”

“How dare you ask me to change, to be someone else!”

“When will you learn to respect authority?”

“You’ve got to learn how to manage your money better.”

“She is incapable of putting herself in someone else’s shoes.”

“He only thinks about himself.”

“He’ll never change.”

Is change really possible?

Can a person change?

Talking about change is complicated.

There are those who would say that people cannot change.

“Who he is is who he is.”

There are those who would say that a person shouldn’t have to change.

“You should love me and appreciate me for who I am, not for who you want me to be.”

Yet deep down, we know we need to change.

And if we don’t know we need to change, you can bet those closest to us — our kids, spouses, co-workers — they know there are things about us that we desperately need to change.

And the kind of change we need is not just surface-level.

It’s not behavior only.

It’s deep-seated assumptions and attitudes and habits, under the surface.

In other words, what we need is a change of heart - a new heart.

Friends, 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.

Listen to this quote:

“Christianity has never had a more dangerous enemy than Saul of Tarsus, or a more dedicated friend than Paul the Apostle; both are the same man.”

(Hunt p179) How can this be?

The change that Saul of undergoes here is called getting saved.

The NT calls is regeneration, conversion, being born again.

And it is available to anyone and everyone who is willing to turn to the Lord in faith and say, “Help.”

Three points today.

Not because every sermon has to have three points but because the text divides neatly into three sections.

We see first Saul the enemy of God; then Jesus, the lover and Savior of Saul; and then lastly, Paul, persecutor-turned-preacher.

Saul >> Jesus >> Paul.

Saul >> Jesus >> Paul

Saul, the enemy of God

Jesus, the Savior of Saul

Paul, persecutor-turned-preacher

#1: Saul, the enemy of God

Saul, the enemy of God.

Now come on, Pastor Dustin, an enemy of God? Really?

In Saul’s mind, he is actually serving God.

But it is not a stretch to call 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 God, the way of salvation — “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.”

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 was first sniffing our Christians, having temple police assist him in rounding them up and tying them up and bringing them bound back to Jerusalem to stand trial and go to prison.

First notice with me where Saul is going.

Saul is going to Damascus.

This wasn’t just like hopping in your car and driving out to Boiling Springs.

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 Burke County, and 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!

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.

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, committing heresy.

Saul had good theological answers for why Jesus of Nazareth could not be the Messiah.

Saul’s logic:

Jesus died

Jesus was crucified

Jesus was cursed (Deut.

21:22-23)

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.

SBecause 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.