Persecution

And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles... As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison. And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. (Acts 8:1, 3; 9:1–2)

The church prayed for their persecutor's destruction—and God answered by saving him, turning His chief enemy into His chosen vessel.

Acts as the Story of Radical Transformation

So far in our review of the book of Acts, we have considered God's power at work in His people to accomplish extraordinary exploits, and then the enemy's opposition against that power. The book of Acts is the story of God's power at work in and through His people, and the enemy's opposition against that work. But the book of Acts is also a story of radical transformation.

We saw the opposition of the enemy in Acts chapter four, coming through the religious leaders in Jerusalem against Peter and John in the form of verbal threats: we forbid you to preach in the name of this Jesus of Nazareth any longer. In chapter five they continued boldly proclaiming the gospel, so the religious leaders brought all the apostles before them, wanting to kill them. But a Pharisee among them gave counsel: if you fight against this work and it is of God, you will find yourself fighting against God. So they decided not to kill them, but to beat them—their verbal threats moved into physical assault.

Escalating Persecution

In Acts chapter seven, the opposition escalated further. Now it was not only against the apostles, but against a young, up-and-coming leader in the church named Stephen, and it moved beyond verbal and physical assault to murder. They martyred Stephen. The escalation continued in chapter eight, as that persecution spread to the whole body, primarily overseen by an individual introduced at the end of chapter seven: Saul.

Saul was a young, up-and-coming Pharisee in Jerusalem, from the city of Tarsus in modern-day Turkey. He was about thirty when Jesus began His ministry, very similar in age to the Lord, and likely was in Jerusalem during the time Jesus was crucified. He was on the fast track to success among the religious ruling class. He says of himself that he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees; according to the law, he was blameless. The Pharisees held to strict adherence to the 613 commandments and the religious traditions, and Saul adhered to the law with every ounce of his being.

The First Persecutor of the Church

We're told later that Saul was a pupil of Gamaliel—the very same Gamaliel who told the council not to fight against this work lest they find themselves fighting against God. Apparently Saul did not get the memo. In Acts 8:1 he was consenting unto the death of Stephen, and in verse 3 he made havoc of the church, entering into every house and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.

Saul of Tarsus was one of the first, if not the first, persecutor of the church, and he made it his aim to destroy it. He was demonically inspired, I believe, and yet God allowed him to do what he did, using him as an instrument of opposition against God's plans. Yet even in his furor, he caused the work of God to extend further. This is one of the awesome things God is able to do. As Joseph said at the end of Genesis to the brothers who sold him into slavery, "What you intended for evil, God has used for good." Saul intended to destroy the work of God and only caused it to spread more.

An Underground Church That Prayed

By Acts chapter seven, about six years after the church started—around AD 36—Saul began his full frontal assault. If you had been a Christian in Jerusalem then, you would have known the name Saul of Tarsus very well, and you would have done whatever you could to keep him from finding where you met. The church was an underground church. Throughout history the church has often existed this way—in China today, in Iran, in many places of the 10/40 window where the gospel is hindered by the active work of the enemy through men. And yet God still does a great work underground.

If you had been a Christian in Jerusalem in AD 36, you probably also would have been praying for Saul. I imagine those prayers sounded something like the psalms of David: "God, take him out. Break his teeth in his mouth." Not take him out to falafel—I mean kill him. See what he's done to Stephen and to the church. Have any of you ever prayed that way? Be honest; God sees.

Breathing Threats Against the Way

For all the prayers the church prayed, the opposition only increased. Christians were scattered, taken into custody, beaten, and some killed—Saul tells us later he oversaw the death of some. Yet as the church was pushed, it was pushed north into Syria, outside Israel. You would think the church was now outside Saul's jurisdiction, but in Acts chapter nine we read that Saul was breathing murderous threats and slaughter against the church. He was seething with anger, a radical terrorist who wanted the church dead, a bulldog of the first magnitude trying to annihilate what was called "the way."

Jesus had said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," and these people followed the way. So Saul went to the high priest and desired letters to the synagogues of Damascus, that if he found any of this way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. He had found out there was a group of Christians in the synagogues of Damascus, and he obtained authority to go after them. He saw himself as the defender of God and of Judaism. But the church was praying, and that prayer was about to be answered—just not in the way some expected.

The Road to Damascus

As Saul journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? (Acts 9:3–4)

I like to picture this. Damascus is about 160 miles north of Jerusalem, at least a five-day journey on foot, and Saul had a group of men with him to do his dirty work—he was not one to get his hands dirty, as we saw with Stephen. It is the middle of the day, about noon, when a bright light from heaven, brighter than the sun, knocks him to the ground. He hears a voice in his own Hebrew language singling out his name: "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"—literally, why are you pursuing, harassing, and mistreating me from heaven?

And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. (Acts 9:5)

I don't imagine Saul said this pompously. He's lying on the ground, blinded by the light: "Who are you, Lord?" When he recounts the story in Acts 22, the Lord says, "I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting." Jesus was a common name then, so He identified Himself precisely: you know who I am, and I know who you are. It is hard for you to fight against me. You are fighting against something I am doing.

Jesus Takes It Personally

Picture what bombarded Saul's mind. God focuses the light of His glory on this man and says: do you have any idea what you're messing with? Your rabbi said if you fight this work you fight against God—and you're fighting against me. You picked a fight with the wrong person, the commander of the army of the Lord.

Saul was completely ignorant of what he was doing and who he was persecuting. He thought this was purely earthly, an insurrection against Judaism that had to be put down. Now he is confronted with the reality that it is God he is fighting. When people resist the work of God in their lives, they often don't realize they are fighting against God Himself.

But more than that, Jesus takes personally anything done against His bride. Note that carefully. Saul persecuted the church Jesus presides over, and Jesus says, "You're fighting with me." Husbands understand this. Someone picks on your wife or your kids, and instantly it becomes personal. God feels the same way: you do something against my bride, and I take it personally.

Submission and Three Days of Blindness

And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. (Acts 9:6)

That is submission—trembling, astonished, completely blown away. Essentially God said, go to your room; I'll deal with you in a few days. The men with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no man. Saul arose, and when his eyes were opened he could see nothing, so they led him by the hand into Damascus. He was three days without sight, and he neither ate nor drank.

Here is a Pharisee of the Pharisees, sitting blind and alone for three days, going through everything he thought he knew about God. He knew the Scriptures—or thought he did. Jesus had told the Pharisees, "You search the scriptures, for in them you think you have life, but they are they which testify of me." Now Saul has three days to think about it, fasting and praying.

Ananias Is Sent

The Lord spoke in a vision to a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias—likely one of the very people on Saul's hit list. The Lord told him to go to the street called Straight, to the house of Judas, and find Saul of Tarsus, who is praying and has seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming to restore his sight.

Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem... But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel. (Acts 9:13–15)

Ananias tries to get out of it—this is a bad dude here to do bad things. But the Lord says, I've chosen him; he's been kicking against the goads, but I've chosen him. How many of you fought against the Lord when He first called you? Saul's rage came because, like the old saying, if you throw a rock into a pack of dogs, the one that barks loudest is the one that got hit. Every time someone like Stephen preached, Saul was cut to the heart, and in his conviction he directed that into rage against God and the church.

Radical Transformation

And Ananias... putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. (Acts 9:17)

Brother Saul—how awesome is that? Immediately scales fell from his eyes, he received his sight, and he was baptized. Complete submission. By his baptism he declares, "I have been crucified with Christ; I no longer live." The old Saul is dead. Then he was strengthened, stayed certain days with the disciples at Damascus, and straightway preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God.

This is radical transformation. The persecutor from Jerusalem, the Pharisee of the Pharisees, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, blameless according to the law—everything oriented toward a high trajectory in Judaism—now counts it all as rubbish that he might gain Christ (Philippians 3). He goes into the very synagogues where his letters from the high priest would have helped him, and now proves that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the Son of God, God incarnate.

The Persecutor Becomes the Persecuted

And all that heard him were amazed, and said; Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem...? But Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ. (Acts 9:21–22)

After many days, the Jews took counsel to kill him and watched the gates day and night. The persecutor becomes the persecuted. The disciples took him by night and let him down the wall in a basket—an act of humility for a once-prideful man, which he recounts fifteen or twenty years later in 2 Corinthians 12 as one of the humbling moments of his life.

When he came to Jerusalem and tried to join the disciples, they were afraid of him and did not believe he was a disciple. But Barnabas—the same son of encouragement we met in Acts chapter four, who sold land to care for the needy—brought Saul to the apostles and declared how he had seen the Lord and preached boldly. So Saul was with them, speaking boldly in Jerusalem and disputing against the Grecians, the same group that had killed Stephen and were once his friends. Now they sought to slay him, so the brethren brought him down to Caesarea and sent him to Tarsus. Then the churches throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had rest and were edified, walking in the fear of the Lord and were multiplied.

Transformed to Become Transformers

This is mind-blowing transformation. Imagine if Osama bin Laden had become a follower of Jesus, then became the biggest evangelist in the world, and wanted to speak at a church in America. We'd be stunned. The book of Acts is a story of radical transformation, seen in Peter, James, and John, but most of all in Saul.

Many of you sitting here have a story of radical transformation. You were once blind, but now you see; once lost, but now found by the grace of God. Your name may not have changed like Saul's—when he began his missionary work in Acts 13 on the island of Cyprus he became known as Paul—but there is a total difference. People who knew you before say, "What happened to you? I hardly recognize you," and it's not because you gained or lost a few pounds. Something is completely different.

God radically transforms us so that He can make us instruments of radical transformation. He transforms us so we can be transformers. Follow the story: Paul and Barnabas go out in Acts 13 to Galatia—Lystra, Iconium, Derbe, Antioch of Pisidia—where carnal idolaters are transformed by one who was transformed. Paul and Silas go into Europe in Acts 16—Philippi, Berea, Thessalonica, Corinth. On the third journey they reach Ephesus and the regions of Smyrna, Philadelphia, Sardis—the churches of Revelation. Lives radically transformed by one who was himself radically transformed by Jesus Christ.

A Launching Pad, Not a Museum

If you are a Christian today, you have been radically transformed by the gospel, but we need to recognize God transformed us because we are His chosen vessels to do His work. This church is not to be a showcase or a museum of radical transformation. It needs to be a launching pad, sending those who have been transformed into Escondido, Valley Center, San Marcos, Bonsall, Fallbrook, Rancho Bernardo, San Diego County, and the uttermost parts, to be instruments of transformation. That is what we are committed to.

I believe God has called the pastors and leaders here, according to Ephesians 4:11–12, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry—to equip those who are radically transformed to be radical transformers in the world. We want this to be an army of God to see real change you can believe in.

Discovering Your Gifts and Calling

So what does God do to make us instruments of transformation? First, He gives us gifts. Ephesians 4 and 1 Corinthians 12–14 tell us He gifts us by His Holy Spirit, so that we function by His power, not our own—for our sufficiency is of Him who has made us able ministers. We did thirteen weeks of studies on the gifts of the Spirit, available on our website.

One question I received was, "How do I know what gifts I have?" When we begin to walk through a door the Lord opens, He enables us with His power to do things we never could before. As a practical help, we built a spiritual gifts test—42 questions, about three minutes, at gifts.ccesco.com—that will email you an assessment of areas the Lord may have gifted you in. It isn't gospel, but it can be helpful.

Beyond gifts, God calls us with our talents and abilities—our training, careers, and natural skills—to serve Him. So we also developed a serve survey at servey.ccesco.com (spelled that way on purpose), to learn where you are talented and what abilities you have. Why? Because we believe God has called us to reach this community. Next year we want to commit 10,000 hours of community service to our area, to be agents of transformation. To help lead this, we've asked Pastor Jeff Jackson to be our pastor over outreach.

Closing Prayer

Lord, we thank You for the work that You are doing—in the nursing home facilities in our community, the work through Tom and Leslie with youth that are homeless or disenfranchised, the work at Rose School with ESL, the work through the Spanish ministry of outreach. Lord, there are so many areas in our community where outreach is going on because of this church—through Pastor Eric with the fire department and the sheriff, through Mary Hendricks with the police department and hospice. We thank You for the doors You are opening for us as a body, and we ask that You would open more doors and make it very clear how You want each of us to be a part of it. Every joint in the body is placed there by You to accomplish a task. Continue to give vision to our leadership, continue to open doors for Jeff as he interacts with the city and community organizers, and use us to be an influence of radical transformation in North County and beyond, wherever You would carry us. We lift this into Your hands and ask for Your grace, enabling us by Your Spirit to do that which we cannot do in ourselves. We ask it in Jesus' name. And all God's people agreed, saying, Amen.