Consider these questions as you dwell in Acts 9:1-19:

1. How does the conversion of Saul, who later becomes known as Paul, serve as a significant turning point in the book of Acts? What makes Saul's transformation from a persecutor of the church to an instrument chosen by God to proclaim the gospel to both Gentiles and Israelites particularly remarkable?

2. In Saul's encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, he experiences a dramatic shift from opposition to faith. What does this reveal about the transformative power of God's grace and the potential for even the most hardened hearts to turn towards faith? How does this event challenge our understanding of God's ability to change lives?

3. Ananias initially hesitates to go to Saul due to his reputation as a persecutor of the church. However, God emphasizes Saul's role as a chosen instrument for carrying His name before various groups. How does this episode highlight the broader mission that God has in store for Saul, including his call to suffer for the sake of Christ's name? How might this perspective on suffering impact our own understanding of challenges and trials in our faith journey?

Transcript:

 And so here we have come to a major turning point. in the story in the book of Acts. Remember what we are seeing here in Acts is how the gospel went to Jerusalem, Judea, then Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth. And now we are going to see the instrument that God is going to use to take the gospel to the Gentiles.

Now from what we have seen about Saul thus far, this is not at all what we would expect. He is the one who has been persecuting the church. He is a Hebrew of Hebrews. How is this person who is, and we learn from the rest of the New Testament and his writings, how adamant he was in the ways of the Hebrew, of the Jewish faith, and now he is the one who's going to bring the faith to the Gentiles.

This is not how you and I would write this story at all. This is a miraculous thing and we see how it happened here, look at verse four. He was knocked to the ground, and he heard this voice and he saw the saw light, Saul, why are you persecuting me? He doesn't know who it is, and Jesus announces to him that it is I am Jesus, he says, whom you are persecuting.

What an amazing thing that, that Saul, who will become Paul, must have experienced here. And we know that the people around Saul don’t see what's happening. They just hear a voice, uh, but they don't know what exactly is happening.  And this is an amazing thing because, like I said before, Saul is the last person we would expect it.

If we were reading the story without knowing where it's going, this is a major plot twist. This is the bad guy becoming the good guy, right? How amazing is this?  Well Saul Even though he has had this experience. He can't see and so we find him in Damascus and Ananias is called upon by God to go and speak over him to for him to get his sight restored but Ananias is nervous.

He's heard about what Saul has done. He's heard how the he has been persecuting the church and so he doesn't want to go but the lord says something to him look at verse 15 Go for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the gentiles and kings And the children of Israel now notice that while I have been mentioning that Paul is the one who reaches out to the gentiles  He also is to bring the faith to kings and to the children of Israel It's not just to the Gentiles.

He's proclaiming the gospel to everyone but then verse 16 Once again It's just it just kind of knocks you back when you when you stop, and you think about it for I will show him How much he must suffer for the sake of my name really let’s think about that for a second. We're bringing him to faith, God has radically gone after him knocking him down speaking with him individually and now he needs to learn that he is going to suffer.

How do we try to? uh Promote people coming to faith. Oh, you're going to have a better life. Your life will be better. God is going to bless you that’s not what that's not what the lord says to Ananias here Saul needs to figure out he needs to learn how much he's going to suffer For the sake of my name and this is an important theme throughout the New Testament.

We see this in Paul and his writings that  he sees suffering as an opportunity to proclaim the gospel as an opportunity To do something good for the glory of God We see suffering as a punishment, but God uses suffering and that's important for us to remember we think that if we're doing it that if we're suffering we're doing something wrong, but often God uses suffering to bring glory to himself.

And so, we see here, as this passage concludes, that Paul, uh, has Ananias speaks over him, and immediately something like scales falls from his eye and he regains his sight. Paul not only is able to see, but we know, we know that he now has faith in Christ. He has come to faith. He is not only seeing, uh, the stuff that's in front of his faith, he is able to see the truth.

And so he rises up and he's baptized and he takes food  and we're going to learn as we go through the book of Acts how much Paul Ministers and how much he shares the gospel and how he does suffer  But let's think about what you and I do with this passage here today I like to come back to this story  because it is really a miraculous thing But do we see this on?

The same level as when Peter and John helped the lame man walk. We see that as the big miracle, the big miracles in feeding the 5, 000 and they are, they are big miracles.  But let's take a look and think about the miracle that was done here.  Saul's heart was hard.  He was dead in his trespasses and sins.

He was rejecting God. He was a rebel against God. Not only rejecting him but persecuting the people of the Christian faith. And what did God do? God knocked him down and brought him to faith.  That is a miracle. That is maybe one of the most amazing miracles in the Bible, just as the most amazing miracle that you and I can testify to in our lives.

is that God has taken our hearts of stone and made them hearts of flesh. That he has given us faith. He has taken us when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, and yet he brought us to himself. What an amazing miracle we see here in the life of Saul, and what an amazing miracle we see in our lives. So may we rest in that truth that God has done something miraculous in us, and may we rejoice in it greatly today.