← ArchiveSunday, August 11, 2013DateAugust 11, 2013SpeakerChris BurnsTextActsPassages in this sermonActs 90:00Acts 415:04Romans 10:923:02TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00Acts chapter 9. We've been talking about questions. First question, Pilate asked, what is truth? The second question, Jesus asked, who do you say that I am? And today is another question. Actually, there's two questions in this conversation I think is really interesting as we read it. But Acts chapter 9 beginning in verse 1, now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and he asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus so that if he found any belonging to the way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.0:24And he was traveling. And it happened that he was approaching Damascus. And suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him and he fell to the ground.0:50And he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Now some of you will say, and you will see later on, it says, why are you kicking against the goads?1:15A little difference in translation is one having it and one not. Never changes the emphasis on it. And he said, second question, who are you, Lord? Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you, Lord? And he said, I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting. But get up and enter the city and it will be told you what you must do.1:42The men who traveled with him stood speechless hearing the voice but seeked no one. Saul got up from the ground and through his eyes, though his eyes were open, he could not, he could see nothing. Interesting. His eyes were open but he couldn't see anything. How many people today do you know walk around with their eyes wide open, don't see anything? Leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus.2:08And he was three days without sight and neither ate nor drank. And then you can go on and hear about his experience with Ananias. The conversion of Paul is said to have been one of the most extraordinary conversions recorded in Scripture. One commentator I thought pretty interesting said that Philip, who led the Ethiopian to the Lord, could not be used by God to go reach Paul. It's also been said that Peter, who went after Cornelius after the vision and led Cornelius to the Lord,2:38was not called upon to witness and to bring Paul into the family. But it was Jesus himself that brought Paul into the family. And why so? Well, I think if you study a little bit of Paul's history, you understand that there are people in this auditorium today that are sought in their beliefs. You know what I mean by that?3:07I mean, you are firm. There is no doubt in what you believe. You are not going to be moved off where you are at all right now. And sometimes we forget that's exactly where Paul or Saul was. Saul was raised up in the best synagogues under the best teachers. He was raised up under the Word of God. He studied the prophets. He studied the Scriptures. He knew them well. And when this movement came along called the way,3:37it embittered him to the point that if he needed to hold the cloak of those that would stone Stephen, that's fine. And if he needed to pick up a rock himself, that was fine. Because this cultic way that followed this messianic Messiah was not going to destroy his religion. That's literally where he was. The Bible says that embittered he went to the high priest. So Paul is going to follow the very letter of the law.4:06So he goes to the high priest, which was allowed by the Romans, to get the letters so that he may go out into the outer areas of Jerusalem, Damascus and other areas, with these letters, letters of permission to find people who knew Jesus and to take those people who knew Jesus and persecute them or have them arrested and persecuted because he was going to stop this movement if he had to do it single-handedly.4:32Ever thought about Paul like that? Well, it's kind of hard to think about Paul like that when we've read 1st, 2nd Thessalonians, we've read Ephesians, we've read the letter to Romans, when we've read the letters to Colossae, the Colossian church, and we've read the letters to the Galatian church. It's hard to think about Paul anything but being anybody that was in love with the Lord Jesus. But Paul brings to our attention an important thing,5:01and the question is an important question. And as Jesus confronts Paul, he says, Paul, why are you persecuting me? In other words, Paul, why do you hate so deeply? Paul, why do you have such anger in your body? Paul, why do you want to destroy so badly? That's what he's asking.5:33But it's interesting in the way that the question is asked, and we'll talk about it in a minute, but I just thought that the same question might be asked us today. Why do we hate so deeply? Why do we become so indignant when our traditions are moved? Why do we become so enraged when our names are not mentioned?5:58Or we're not considered? Why is it that we feel like we ought to have our name above certain buildings instead of the Lord Jesus' name over all the buildings? You see, Paul's whole life was filled with hatred toward a group of people6:23that had been where he was. But they had been gloriously born again, converted, transformed, not just renewed, but rebirthed into becoming the body of Christ. What about us?6:52Do we see in Saul before he became Paul? And do we need to pray for a blinding light to change our lives that we may be people that see? Because I want to tell you something. I know a lot of people with their eyes wide open that do not see truth. They don't see it. They don't want to see it. They are indignant when someone opens truth up to them7:20because it blows away their perceptions, even though their perceptions were planted by heresies, not maybe intentionally, but as time goes on. So let's look at three little brief items concerning, or maybe there may be more before I get through with it. Yeah, there is. But let's begin with the question.7:48The question is, he was traveling. It happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven. Notice it was a light from heaven. It wasn't just a flashing light. I believe we see that we understand ultimately that it was a light from God. Another thing that brings us back, and it reiterates into our minds, when Jesus asked Peter, who do you say that I am,8:16and Peter gives this glorious answer, the Christ, the Son of the living God, that Jesus doesn't say, well, Peter, you're so smart. You are so brilliant. You have read the Bible so well. You have been to vacation Bible school, and you know all the answers. No, Jesus looked at him. He said, oh, by the way, guys around him, he wanted them to know, this has not been revealed to you by man, but my Father in heaven told you who I was. And now the very conversion of Saul is initiated by a heavenly light,8:43by who? The Father in heaven. I want to tell you, every conversion is initiated by God. You don't initiate your own conversion. You don't bring about your own forgiveness for sins. And you don't change your own life. God has got to be the sole author of all of it. So he said, a light flashed around him,9:13and he fell on the ground. And I'm sure any of us would. I have a friend of mine who said lightning struck within just a few yards of him, and he fell on the ground. And this wasn't lightning. And he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Now, that's an interesting question. And that's where we begin is with the question. The question is personal. Jesus is saying, and this ought to give us a lot of peace and joy and excitement as the church,9:42but Jesus takes personally this battle that Paul is waging against the body of Christ, and he doesn't say, Paul, why are you persecuting the church? He doesn't say, Paul, why are you persecuting the people of the way? He says, Paul, why are you persecuting me? In other words, Jesus identifies himself with us. I'm identified with Jesus because Jesus identifies with me,10:11not because I identify with him. Jesus said, Paul, you're hurting me. And Paul, I'm sure, could have set up a very quick argument and said, wait a minute, let's discuss this matter for a little while. Let me ask you a couple of questions here. First of all, what have I ever done to you? You died, and as far as I'm concerned, you're dead and you're gone. I'm just going after these people who are radically picking up the scriptures10:40and saying that the Messiah has come and that their sins have been paid for and they're leading all these people astray. I've done nothing to you, but Jesus identifies himself with us and that brings great joy, great strength, and great power into my life as a believer of Jesus Christ wherever I go when I know that God identifies with me. And so the question bears some thinking on our part.11:08There's a mystical union of the ages that is being revealed right before Paul's eyes, and this mystical union is that of Jesus being the body of Christ and the body of Christ being the feet of Jesus, the body of Jesus, the life of Jesus that is to live out the purpose and the design of Jesus. Let me tell you something. We are not here to live out our dreams and our aspirations through a Baptist church.11:38We are here to live out the dreams and aspirations of the Word of God that has been given to us by Jesus himself. We are not here to make one another happy and peaceful in our sinful lifestyles. We are here to make sure that we are living up and living out the Word of God. My friend, I want to tell you something. There are way too many folks that are looking for a peaceful, happy place12:07and their church is full of them. But you know, the Bible says if a man sees, a brother sees his brother sinning, he'll just let him go. Just let him go. Just ignore him. Maybe he won't come back. We'll just let him go. He'll go off and he'll find his own path and maybe he'll just get happy somewhere else. I want to tell you, the Bible says if a brother sees a brother sinning, that brother goes after that brother, he saves somebody.12:37And so that's what we're about. This mystical union that God has formulated, has created through his son Jesus Christ is important for us and we see it in the very question that Paul is confronted with as Jesus says, why are you persecuting me? Jesus, the head of the church, knew the pain of those that were a part of his body. Can we imagine13:08that even while there were those like Stephen that were being stoned, those that were being beaten, those that were being pushed out of their houses, the pain that they felt, Christ felt. I want to tell you something. You're not going through anything today as a believer in Jesus Christ that your Savior is not hurting with you through. You don't shed a tear that he don't know about. You don't have a pain that he hasn't felt.13:37You don't have a thought he hasn't thought. And you think that because you're out there and nobody knows the trouble I've seen and nobody understands me, I want to tell you, there may not be anybody in any church that can relate to where you are, but there's a Savior in heaven that relates to exactly where you are. You know, there are people all the time saying, you know, I go to church and I'm going to church so I can find somebody I can relate to.14:06Let me tell you something. If you relate to anybody, I'll relate to Jesus first. You'll relate to the other people. Listen, I want to find a church that relates to Jesus. Paul, as far as we know, never knew Jesus personally. He knew of him. I want you to notice that. When Jesus asked him, why are you persecuting me? Paul comes back with this really important answer, who are you? Before I give you my answer,14:35let me ask you, because, and I think that brings us to an interesting point. As best we know, Paul had only heard about Jesus. He had heard Stephen boldly preach to those that were of the synagogue and those that were of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. He had heard them preach and he had heard the things that they had said. He had heard Peter preach and he probably heard the testimony of those that had been saved and he probably heard about the shaking of the church in Acts chapter 4 where people prayed15:05and he had heard the testimony of those that had been healed and those that were lame, but Paul didn't know Jesus. There might have been that Paul even brushed up against as a young man the garment of Jesus at some point in his ministry. Maybe it was while he was visiting at the temple that Jesus might have just been there and Paul followed but never ever really coming to the place where he knew him. It wasn't time for Paul15:35and God knew it wasn't time for Paul. Paul could have been Peter. Peter could have been Paul but that wasn't in God's plan and it's not for us to try to discern God's plan but it is for us to study his word and kind of understand this Paul, this Saul of Tarsus and who he was and what he was going through because I want to tell you something as I read the things that bring great fear to me is Paul was religious. You know, there are a lot of people that are religious today16:03and are as wrong as Saul was in his day. There are religious people walking around with their eyes wide open that are refusing to follow the Lord Jesus because their traditions mean more to them than following Jesus. Their perceptions are more important and what they think is more important than what anybody else thinks and I want to tell you something. I don't have a thought that's worth following if my thought doesn't come from the word of God. It's kind of like16:32a friend of mine that was confronted by some religious people. They asked him a question and immediately he said, well, let's just see what the Bible said and their response was, ah, we knew you'd go to the Bible for your answer. Don't you have a thought of your own? And he said, not when it comes to the Bible. You know, the Bible is the source. It's the resource. It's the encyclopedia. It's the Google.17:02It's the Yahoo. If you want to find something, don't go to Google. Go to Jesus. And well, sometimes Google does help you find Jesus. So, Paul asked him, who are you? And you know, do you know who he is? Well, you know,17:31I love it and I can't do it that the tribe of S.M. Lockridge when he goes, he is this, he is this. But you know, I do know this. He is God's sinless son sent to a sinful world to save a sinful people by dying on a sinful cross buried in a sinful grave raised to a sinless life and is ascended and is ascended to the heavenly father that we who are lost and undone18:01and undone and without hope have been brought near unto him by the work of the Holy Spirit that we may place our faith and our trust in the only one who can forgive us our sins, establish us in righteousness and pour his holiness out on us and give us a heart of peace and service toward him. And you say, well, that's not how I know him. Well, I'd love to hear how you know him. Who do you think he is?18:32Is he not life changing? Does the Bible, anytime that he speaks of it or anytime anybody else speak of it, of conversion, does it not talk about absolute, total, complete change? Can you be born again and still hold on to the old? No. Can you, old things pass away and you still hold on to old things? No. What do we do with the flesh? Sure we do. But my friend, I want to tell you, when somebody is converted and the living God comes into their heart,19:01they know Jesus like they've never known him before. Paul knew of him, but he didn't know him. You know, he asked Jesus who he was. Had he known him, he would have said, oh, are you Jesus? I'm sure Paul knew all about the church that he was seeking to persecute. I'm sure that he knew they were followers of this Christ. I'm sure that he knew the story of the Christ19:30that they claimed that he was the sinless son of God that died for men's sins. I'm sure he knew all the answers as well as any of the rest of them because Paul was a learned man. And I want to tell you something, there are a lot of learned people that don't know Jesus Christ or God today. They know all about him. He knew about Jesus. He knew who he was.19:59He knew what he had done. He knew what he was doing. But he did not know him. There was more sinfulness in Paul than there ever could be. Righteousness brought on his obedience to the law. So it brings us to the next question. There's the question and then there's the response or the next point. The point is the response.20:28Paul's response and he said, who are you Lord? And Jesus responded, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. You know, when you're preaching sometimes you do get ahead of yourself and I did in this respect. We sometimes really seriously need to come back to understand that our relationship to Jesus Christ is because of how Jesus relates to us not how we relate to him. Jesus has chosen20:58to relate to us. He chose to come to this earth for us. We didn't choose to bring him down here in other words. We didn't choose to beckon God to send Jesus so we could walk with God one day. God in his infinite love for us beckoned that he would send Jesus to us and now beckons us to come to Jesus that we may confess him as Lord and Savior so we can walk with God. In other words, the response and the work of what has taken place21:28in our salvation was created and bound in heaven before it was ever brought to earth. And so we come today and the question is how we're going to respond. I liked what John Phillips said. John Phillips said that it took it took Paul Saul a minute because he said and he said who are you Lord? And he said I am Jesus whom you are persecuting21:57but rise and enter and you'll be told what you are to do and the men who were traveling with him didn't understand anything that was going on but then he says in verse 10 now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias the Lord said to him in a vision and he said here am I Lord. Paul in the beginning wasn't sure who he was but before the conversation was ever over he knew what he was. Lord. I tell you today22:26there are a lot of people that want to know Jesus in a lot of ways but very few of them want to know him as Lord. You know I've always heard that he's either Lord of all or he's not Lord at all and the tragedy of that is is that our response sometimes is as we bow our heads to say the sinner's prayer that we just want to be saved we don't want anybody in charge and can I say that if you have bowed your head just to be saved without anybody being in charge you probably weren't22:56saved to begin with because in my Bible he becomes Lord. Jesus in Romans 10 9 has Paul to write if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus the Lord Jesus that means that you're giving your life as a surrender to the one and only one who is going to guide you through the pits of life to make sure that you glorify him as you are birthed in his image23:26every day by the new experiences that he brings your way so Paul response is interesting and he said who are you but then he said Lord and that was an eternal introduction something happened in the introduction of Jesus explaining to Paul who he was and Paul accepting23:55accepting the explanation but I want you to notice how many of us here today would not love to go back and have the opportunity to have the same kind of experience that Paul had I can tell you that as a young man growing up and battling the call of God on my life that I prayed often in the middle of the night Lord I want to know that you're calling me to preach so give me that Paul experience in other words God let's get excited here the room is dark the lights are off let your light blaze across24:25blaze across the sky let you speak to me and I'll hear you and I'll respond to you God I want that Paul experience I don't know many people if any people that have ever had a Paul experience we don't even talk about Peter having a Paul experience but isn't it interesting that God gave Paul if God gave Paul Paul experiences that means God's unfair when he doesn't give us the same kind of Paul experience24:54experience no what it simply means is there's a sovereign God that will reach down however he needs to to reach us with whatever he needs to reach us with and what we need to be ready for is for him to reach down and beg him to reach down if he hadn't already reached down because it is God's sovereign power power that moved in Saul's life you know we today talk about Christian names25:24Christian names what's your Christian name well that means what's your given name my Christian name is Christopher now does that mean that you got a new name when you got saved no I was born I was born my mother named me Christopher and the middle name is private and then the last name I've got one of those private middle names just like the rest of y'all no I'm proud Christopher Leon I don't25:48I don't know who said that over there but thank God I'm no longer Saul but Paul Burns well wouldn't it be neat that at the point that we actually got saved that brother Rick was your name is not Rick it's Richard didn't it so when you got saved we could say well we're just going to change your name your mother26:18your mother would get all bent out of shape I'm sure she's sitting back there along with your dad because you are a second or junior I think and I mean that's a very proud moment for this family to have their first child and name him boy do you have footprints to step through but anyway and then all of a sudden you got saved we're going to change your name to Ricky they did Rick we're going to change it to George then when somebody says26:48somebody says what's your Christian name we can say well I had this name before I got saved but now that I've been saved I got this name and that's what happened to Paul Saul responded and God said because you've responded I'm going to change it he did that to one other person didn't he his name what was his name before it was Peter from this day forward you're the rock things have so changed27:17so changed in your life I'm going to call you by something different than I've ever called you before I'm going to call you Peter I'm going to call you Paul wow so I pray God in this darkness what would I be called shine your light let your fire fall God let me know I'm sure Elijah felt the same way but the Bible tells us that Elijah27:47that Elijah heard a still small voice as God gave him new instructions for his life there was the outcome of the response notice the outcome was an immediate command from Jesus now not everybody likes to be told what to do that's why I wonder sometimes if people ever become a Christian because a Christian ought to be excited to hear the voice of28:17voice of God as God tells them what to do and so Jesus gives Paul these instructions and he said I'm Jesus so he answered this question whom you're persecuting relating himself to the church we talked about that but he says but rise and enter the city and you'll be told what you're to do Paul no longer are you going to be in charge but now in your blindness you're going to be led you're going to be told and you're going to do it my friend28:46my friend how many of us will give up our lives today to say God whatever you would have me to do wherever you would have me to go whatever you would have me to say I'll give it up for you how many of us today we just got a group back from the Dominican Republic and I'll tell you what I've heard some of the most exciting stories already about things that have gone on in their life we've got some just a couple of weeks ago from Nicaragua and I want to tell you Stuart I don't go to the Dominican Republic that I don't come back wishing I'd stayed do you29:16do you Dale do you want to go back well I'm going back in about three weeks for three days come on let's just go back and build a Bethel Baptist church down there have the biggest mess down there but anyway no guys I tell you when you go out and do something for God you want to get involved in it you want more people to go with you you want to be excited because God Paul Peter or excuse me Paul29:45Paul I want you to get up I want you to follow these men I want you to go to this street called straight there's going to be this man named Ananias and he's going to take you now Ananias has to be prepared for Saul's coming the outcome is that God has to say to Ananias Ananias don't be afraid Saul's coming Ananias says wait excuse me Saul I don't think so not to my house not to my family I know who he is I know what he's doing but when a person is redeemed by the blood of the lamb Ananias said30:15said okay Lord you tell me what you want me to do with him you see we're not afraid to stand up and take those that the rest of the world might reject or have rejected because God has told us to go the men who were traveling with him stood speechless hearing the voice but seeing no one saw rose from the ground though his eyes were open he couldn't see so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus and for three days he was without sight neither ate nor drank now there30:45there was a disciple of Damascus named Ananias and the Lord said to him in a vision Ananias behold here am I Lord and the Lord said to him rise and go to the street called straight and at that house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul for behold he is praying I want to tell you something when God gives you a new life31:15life the most important thing you want to do is spend time with the one who just changed you and so Saul is doing the only thing he knows to do he's talking to the one who blinded him and I can't imagine what that conversation or prayer would have been like but I think it was probably something like this God I don't know all about you yet but31:43but thank you for blinding me I just want to give you the praise that I no longer can see because now I see better than I've ever seen before because I'm blinded to all the hatred that filled my soul in the past I'm blinded to all the malice that I wanted to bring upon people's lives Lord I just want to thank you that I can't see a thing because I see you because32:11because I believe in his blindness he could see Jesus as well as anybody could ever see anything because Jesus was working in Paul's life to prepare him for the things that lie ahead and the Lord said rise and he went and it says but Ananias answered Lord I've heard many things about this man how much evil he's done to your saints at Jerusalem and32:41and here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on him but the Lord said to him go folks as we end these messages my my answer the outcome is that God said go when God said save Paul he said go when God spoke to Ananias he said go when God speaks to us he says go if all we're doing is sit soaking and souring we're sinning against the holy savior and we need to stand33:11stand up and come to this altar repent of the sourness of our attitudes and our hearts and say God33:24going it's about doing what the very word of God has said do if I was thirsty you gave me to drink if I was naked you clothed me if I was hungry you fed me if I was without a home you gave me a place and we're going and we're sharing and we're giving love and we're holding love folks it's not about us it's about what he's told us to do go and when you quit going well let me just give it to you this way how33:53how many people do you know that are retired and when they retired they quit going and then they died and you may not be dead physically but you may be dead spiritually because you're not going because you know in your heart that34:22that your Lord has said go the truth was revealed Jesus reveals himself as the only one who can save Paul being Saul reminds us that religion doesn't save anybody not even obedience to religion saves anybody it's only a relationship with Jesus and obedience to Jesus and it's the obedience that confirms the salvation an34:52an experience with Jesus is life changing it's name changing when Jesus saves he becomes the commander of our lives we no longer do that which we know is wrong we no longer hold on to personal preference we no longer hold on traditions we no longer want to seek to destroy with gossip we no longer want to seek to destroy with whining and complaining because things aren't going the way the way we want to we we're going to keep on lifting up the name of Jesus we're going to keep on35:22on going and doing the work of Christ because that's where the glory of God is now the question is we're closed today do you know him and if so then why are you kicking against the goats why are you persecuting what he's trying to do why aren't you doing what God's called you to do going35:51going loving serving because not only has he changed your life but he's changed your name let's pray fathers we come to the place of invitation Lord let it not be a place where we receive glory but God let it be a place where you work in the life of your people Lord there are lives here that need to be changed and God you know them there are people here that might be lost you know them God36:20God you know because Lord you know all things and while they're lost Father you and your Holy Spirit are the only thing that can change them and save them and God I pray for you to do just that God if there's somebody here today and they're looking for a church home you bled them you've led them here and Father it's time for them to step out and follow you God I pray your will be done Lord we ask that you be glorified through all this and36:50and not part of it first in Jesus name we pray Amen.More sermons on Acts →
