Chief of Sinners Though WE Be

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern,

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. In the name of Jesus, Amen. We all know the lyrics to the song.

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We've sang it a thousand times. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.

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I once was lost, but now I'm found. Was blind, but now

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I see. Have you considered that lyric there? We're all familiar with it.

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Like I said, we sang it a thousand times. But you'll note here in our gospel text as well as our first reading from the book of Acts, there is mercy and grace for men who have blown it badly.

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Blown it terribly. Last time around when the text came up regarding the restoration of Peter after his denial of Christ three times, three times,

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I preached on that text. Today, we're going to take a look at the conversion of Saul of Tarsus.

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And this is one that should give us comfort, because this is a man who was so blind in his sin, so blind, that he was an activist of a murderous type.

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Believing that he was doing the will of God, he was hunting down and murdering and martyring the disciples of Jesus Christ.

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And believing that he was doing so in a way that was righteous and good and put him on the good guy's team, rather than made him to be a bad guy.

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Such is the blindness of sin. Could you imagine justifying murder in the name of the kingdom of God?

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It makes no sense at all. Again, such is the blindness of sin. So let's walk our way back through our text from Acts chapter 9.

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Saul, Saul of Tarsus, the man who stood by while they were stoning Stephen, watching the cloaks of the people who were hurling the rocks at his head while he died.

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Saul, this one still breathing out threats and murderers, murder against the disciples of the

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Lord. He went to the high priest and he asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus.

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So that if he found any belonging to the way, the way is the early name of Christianity, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

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Yeah, this is activism of a demonic kind and he thinks he's in the right. But how many people today do the same thing?

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There's great examples in history, great examples in our current world. You think of the person who is the outspoken advocate, defender of the rights of abortion, which is the murdering of unborn children.

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And yet they and their zeal and their activism believe that they are somehow the great champion of righteousness.

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When in fact, they are the great promoters and defenders of evil and murder.

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You see examples of that also in history. You think of the Nazis in their idol worship of defurer and their hatred of the

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Jews. They in their righteousness, putting it that in air quotes, murdered six million

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Jews. All believing that they were doing the right and that they were making the world better through their advocacy.

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Again, such is the blindness of sin and don't think for a second you're not guilty of the same kind of blindness where you have been doing evil and doing it zealously and thinking that you were doing right when in fact you were doing wrong.

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So he's on his way to Damascus and now Christ is about to intervene. As he was on his way, he approached

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Damascus. Suddenly a light from heaven shone around him and falling to the ground he heard a voice say to him,

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Saul, Saul. This is not a voice of judgment, by the way.

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Some commentators key in on the fact that he says Saul's name twice and compare it to the times when

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Jesus also says other people's names twice. Martha, Martha you are much worried and have anxiety about many things, but your sister has chosen the better thing.

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This is the voice of Jesus in concern. Abject concern for somebody who's so turned around and so blind and Jesus has bled and died already and risen from the grave for Saul of Tarsus' sins.

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So now Jesus confronts Saul and Jesus is going to apply the hammer of the law to show him his sin and his blindness then will be the metaphor for what he has been doing.

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Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? To persecute one of Jesus's disciples is to persecute

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Christ. So he said, who are you Lord? And now the veil is ripped away so that Saul can see the truth of all of his actions, his thoughts, and his deeds.

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He says, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. And there it is, in a moment he sees the truth.

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Rather than acting righteously, acting correctly, rather than being a good guy, now

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Saul of Tarsus is confronted with the fact, and none other than that fact given to him by Jesus, that he has been acting evilly, acting sinfully, acting wickedly.

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I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. Saul's entire life's work wrapped up, his entire identity wrapped up in opposing

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Christians, now comes crashing down like a building's implosion.

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He says, but rise and now enter the city, and you'll be told what you are to do. So the men who were traveling with Saul, they stood speechless.

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They heard the voice, but seeing no one. So Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing.

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So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus, and for three days he was without sight.

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And he neither ate nor drank. So now Saul of Tarsus, having the hammer of the law destroy him, his entire work, his identity, everything, show him to be the guilty sinner that he is, he now fasts for three days in darkness and in blindness.

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But Jesus isn't done with him yet, and Jesus doesn't send an angel to preach the gospel to Saul of Tarsus.

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No, he sends one of his disciples the same way he does he works today. He sends us to preach the good news of Christ to our brothers and sisters, our friends, our neighbors, our family, our nation, our city, our community.

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Now there was a disciple at Damascus. His name was Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision,

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Ananias, and he said here I am Lord, and the Lord said to him rise, go to the street called straight, and to the house of Judas, and look for a man of Tarsus named

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Saul, for behold he is praying. The Lord is hearing his prayers, for he has seen in a vision a man named

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Ananias. And so you'll note that even Jesus now prepares Saul for what is to come next, and he's preparing

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Ananias for the assignment that he's called him to. So he's seen a man in a vision named

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Ananias come and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight, more than just his physical sight, but his actual spiritual sight as well.

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In fact, Saul being born blind in sin like each and every one of us has yet to see the truth of Christ, to have his eyes opened in that way.

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Now Ananias, he's not acting in unbelief. He is concerned here, and so he reminds the

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Lord humbly that, well, Saul's a bad guy.

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It's kind of the point. So Lord, I've heard from many about this man, how much evil he's done to your saints at Jerusalem, and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who come and call on your name.

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All who call on your name. What does the scripture say? All who call on the name of the

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Lord will be saved. The prophets. So Ananias, concerned for himself in this situation, reminds the

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Lord of just how wicked and evil this man is. But the Lord said to him, go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the

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Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. And I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.

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And it's beautiful if you think about it. So the Lord is sending Ananias to go and preach the gospel to Saul of Tarsus.

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But in the midst of that, we also hear then of the great calling to which Saul is called, but not for glory.

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The calling to suffer. You see, the tables are about to be flipped. The persecutor is going to become the persecuted.

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The reviled, the mocked, the hated, the scorned. Well, that's what

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Saul is about to become, rather than the mocker and the scorner, which he used to be.

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And that's the beauty of this. And so mentioning then in this text, God, Christ, is now making it clear at the outset that Saul is going to be made to suffer.

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And Saul later, as he writes about the sufferings that he is called to in Christ, holds them up as a badge of his own honor, as a sign of his own weakness, so that Christ may be exalted and glorified.

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And so Saul writes in 2nd Corinthians 6, now is the favorable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.

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We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found in our ministry. But as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way, by great endurance in afflictions.

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And he's learned to have endurance in the midst of afflictions. Hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger.

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By purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, by truthful speech, and the power of God, with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left.

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Though through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise, we are treated as impostors, and yet are true, as unknown, and yet well known, as dying.

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And behold, we live as punished, and yet not killed, as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing, yet possessing everything.

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Hmm. You see, the suffering that Christ has called them to, he holds it up, not as a badge of dishonor, but of honor.

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And he embraces the hardships, the calamities, the slander that Christ has called them to.

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In that same epistle, 2nd Corinthians, later in chapter 11, he holds his sufferings up in contradistinction to the so -called super -apostles and their lavish lifestyle, their softness, their, well, they're rich and well -liked, and no one speaks poorly of them.

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But Paul reminds them of his afflictions, although called by Christ and called for this very purpose, he says this,

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With far greater labors, with far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death, and five times

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I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods.

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Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil, in hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

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And apart from the other things, there's thou the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches, who is weak and I am not weak, who is made to fall and I am not indignant.

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For if I must boast, then I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

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So all of this he was called, even from the beginning when Christ appeared to him.

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And so Ananias now get in his marching orders to go and preach the good news of the forgiveness of sins and to baptize the

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Apostle Paul. He's not quite yet the Apostle Paul, but you'll see that. He now goes, obeys

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Christ. So he departed and he entered the house and then laying his hands on Saul, he said to him, and it's just beautiful, first word out of his mouth,

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Adelphos, brother, the murderer, the persecutor, the slanderer, the chief of sinners,

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Saul of Tarsus. First word from Ananias is the affirmation that his standing with Christ is one of forgiven sinner.

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He is now one of the Hagioi, the saints, the ones who have been made holy by Christ.

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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, not just your physical sight, but now your spiritual sight, the one that you've been blind since your birth and so also to be filled with the

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Holy Spirit. And so immediately then something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight physically and now for the first time he sees the truth spiritually.

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He rose and he was baptized, baptized in the name of the Father and of the

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Son and of the Holy Spirit and this Jesus whom he was persecuting, he is now united with in the waters of baptism, baptized into Christ's death and into his resurrection, his heart circumcised by the hands of Christ, his sins washed away.

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And it's beautiful when you think about it. And so the Apostle Paul later in his life, as he's getting ready to finish his course, he says these words in 1st

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Timothy chapter 1 verse 15. This saying is trustworthy and it's deserving of full acceptance.

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That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom

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I am the chief. You see chief of sinners though I be, Jesus shed his blood for me.

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It all comes from this revelation from the Apostle Paul who, as Saul of Tarsus, though he was the chief of sinners,

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Christ came to save him and to save you and to save me. And if Jesus can save a murderer and persecutor of himself like Saul of Tarsus, then maybe he can forgive a sinner like me, the chief of sinners, the chief of sinners that I am, of the sins that I have committed.

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And that's the point and this is what gives us hope. If Christ can forgive

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Saul of Tarsus, the one who persecuted him and martyred his saints, and truly, surely,

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I can believe that he can forgive me. And that's the point. The saying is trustworthy.

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Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the chief, of whom you are the chief.

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So then consider now Paul's conversion, having been raised from the grave, given sight to see the truth.

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He no longer is the persecutor of the saints. He's given up his self -righteousness and the edifice that he built on that with the blood of the saints.

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And he begins to get busy telling everybody about Jesus Christ, the

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Son of God, who came into the world to save sinners. Sinners like him. Sinners like me.

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Sinners like you. And for some days, it says, Saul was with the disciples at Damascus and immediately he proclaimed

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Jesus in the synagogue, saying, He is the Son of God. And all who heard him were amazed and said,

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Is this not the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon his name? And has he not come here for the purpose to bring them bound before the chief priests?

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But Saul increased all the more in strength, confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus, and proved that Jesus was the

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Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, coming to the world to save sinners. So brothers and sisters, if there's hope for Peter, who denied

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Christ, if there's hope for Saul of Tarsus, who murdered his saints and persecuted

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Jesus himself, then know this, that there is hope for you, regardless of the sin that you've committed.

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Though your sins be as scarlet, Christ will make them white as snow. Repent, be forgiven, trust in this

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Jesus, for all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.

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Jew, Greek, slave, free, Peter, Paul, Pastor Roseborough, and even you.

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There's hope for him. There's hope for you. There's hope for me. Indeed, there is hope, because Christ has risen from the grave.

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Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me, like you.

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I once was lost, you were lost too, but now we're found.

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We were blind, but thanks to Christ, who's removed the scales from our eyes, given us the

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Holy Spirit in the waters of baptism, we now see. So let us continue to examine ourselves of all the ways in which we have zealously, in our activism, persecuted

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Christ, opposed his ways, and done harm to his saints and to his church, because each of us are guilty in one way or another of doing that.

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And note then, that this Christ came into the world to save sinners, calls us again to repent, to live in the waters of baptism, to live in the promises received in the waters of baptism, for a hope of eternal life, for the same

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Saul who then finished his course as a martyr. He now stands in that great crowd of witnesses, watching as you finish your course, and as I finish mine.

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Chief of sinners though we be, Jesus shed his blood for you and for me.

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In the name of Jesus, Amen. 470th

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