Acts 22 Your Story in His Story

We're gonna get to hear how the Apostle Paul met Jesus Christ. He's gonna share that, and that's gonna be the the bulk of the the text, the message, and we're gonna read that here in a minute, but we're also gonna get a chance to hear how one of our own came to understand who

Jesus Christ is. Mike Rogers is gonna get up and share just in just a moment after our first song about how he encountered

Christ, and we're gonna be seeing, like, Paul had this dramatic experience, right? Like he's on the way to Damascus, we're gonna see it, a bright light shines, he sees

Jesus Christ, and he encounters the risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and and his life is transformed.

A radical change. So how many of you here have seen a bright light and had Jesus Christ appear to you on the road someplace?

Okay, how many of you have met Jesus Christ here? Okay, a couple of you have met.

No, let me ask that again. How many of you have met Jesus Christ? You have a relationship with Jesus Christ? You met him. Okay, awesome.

Now, so what I want to point out is that we're gonna be looking at two stories, two kind of different stories that have the same point to them, okay?

We're gonna be looking at Paul's testimony, we're gonna see Mike's testimony, we're gonna see that the difference is just the visible, the light, and all of that stuff, but when it really comes down to it,

Christ has come in and transformed a life, and he's done that for me, he's done that for Mike, he's done that for many of you, and we're gonna be looking at the way that he turns us and changes us.

Paul is, in our text, gonna boldly declare the way that his story, that Paul's story, got tied in with the story of God.

How many of you know that God has this huge story that goes beyond before you were born, that's gonna go on after you're gone?

Isn't that kind of, is that exciting, that you have the opportunity to tap into and kind of, kind of like your tributary of life flows into the bigger river of what

God is doing in history, you have an opportunity to actually be a partaker, a participant in the history and the story of God.

It's an awesome, awesome opportunity. We're gonna be looking at the way that Paul's story got tied in with the story of God.

Some people refer to that as a testimony, I've said that word a few times, and the fact of the matter is all who are in with Christ have a testimony, and a testimony can be a powerful tool for proclaiming truth, particularly truth in a culture that values personal stories.

Have you ever thought about, just think about our culture out there and the whole reality television thing, and how much real life and real life stories have an impact in our culture, right?

Don't people like to hear, how many of you would raise your hand and say, I like to hear stories? Okay, it's a part and parcel of our culture.

We don't necessarily, I mean sure we like information and we like facts and things like that to some degree, depends on your personality, some of you really like statistics, some of you could care less about numbers, you know, things like that, but we all have a penchant for stories in our culture.

So I want you to open your Bibles, we're gonna hear a story, Acts chapter 22, that's page 797 in the

Bible that's in the seat back in front of you, so if you want to grab one of those Bibles, you can turn to 797. We're gonna read the entirety of Acts 22, go through this entire chapter.

If you don't own a Bible, I would encourage you to take that one that's in the seat back in front of you with you, we want everybody here to own a

Bible, and we've got a box full of those, well we're getting a box full delivered to fill in what's lacking there.

So follow along as I read Acts 22. Brothers and fathers, this is

Paul speaking, brothers and fathers, hear the defense that I now make before you. And when they heard that he was addressing them in the

Hebrew language, they became even more quiet, and he said, I'm a Jew born in Tarsus and Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel, according to the strict manner of the law, the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day.

I persecuted this way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women. As the high priest and whole council of elders can bear me witness, from them

I received letters to the brothers, and a journey towards Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished.

As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me, and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me,

Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And I answered, who are you, Lord? And he said to me,

I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you are persecuting. Now those who were with me saw the light, but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me.

And I said, what shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said to me, rise and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do.

And since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me and came into Damascus.

And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came to me and standing by me said to me, brother

Saul, receive your sight. And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him. And he said, the

God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the righteous one, and to hear a voice from his mouth.

For you will be my witness, be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard.

And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name. When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple,

I fell into a trance and saw him saying to me, make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.

And I said, Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you.

And when the blood of Stephen, your witness, was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him.

And he said to me, go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles. Up to this word they listened to him.

Then they raised their voices and said, away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live.

And as they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, the tribune ordered him to be brought into the barracks, saying that he should be examined by flogging to find out why they were shouting against him like this.

But when they had stretched him out for the whips, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a

Roman citizen and uncondemned? When the centurion heard this, he went to the tribune and said to him, what are you about to do?

For this man is a Roman citizen. So the tribune came and said to him, tell me, are you a

Roman citizen? And he said, yes. The tribune answered, I bought this citizenship for a large sum. Paul said, but I am a citizen by birth.

So those who are about to examine him withdrew from him immediately. And the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a

Roman citizen and that he had bound him. Let's pray. Fathers, we have an opportunity to hear in this text the testimony of Paul, the way that you came into his life and changed him, what he was like before he came to understand who you were, how he came to understand who you are, and then what his life has been like afterwards.

Father, I pray that we would be able to reflect on your movement and work in our lives. And Father, I recognize that there are some here who are just in process, are coming to understand who they are without you, and they need you.

And then there are others who are in the process of crossing that line, and then there are others who are beyond that line and are growing up in you.

Father, I pray that you would meet us here in this place and identify in our hearts where we are at in our relationship with you.

Father, as we get an opportunity to praise you and to worship you in singing, God would you be honored and glorified.

And then as Mike even comes and shares his testimony, Father, I ask that you be with him and give him peace and clarity as he shares what you have done for him.

Thank you for salvation in the name of Jesus Christ and for the change that can be brought into our lives because of who you are and what you have done.

I pray that we would be able to praise you in the name of Jesus Christ this morning, and it's in his name that we pray.

Amen. Let's continue worship as we hear the story from Mike Rogers.

Good morning. See me around a little bit. I don't know if everybody knows me.

I'm Mike. I just want to thank Don for letting me come up and tell you a little bit about myself here.

I grew up in Portage, Michigan. My dad was a hard -working guy.

Provided a lot for us, did everything he could. I grew up fearing him.

He was a tough guy, so if I got in trouble, if I did drugs, if I committed any crimes, did anything like that,

I knew that we had to deal with him. So I stayed clear of the bad side for the most part.

But one thing that always kind of stuck out to me was our house never had a positive mention of God or Jesus Christ in it.

So it seemed that it was more expletive or something.

So I never had any of that upbringing.

So I always believed in God, but I was so ignorant of the connection with Jesus, and I always felt that that was for other people.

That had nothing to do with me. So I ended up just turning my back on God and just doing whatever

I could to avoid it. I don't know why. Just never felt it.

I always thought that to be a man, it was to do things that served myself, to do whatever

I did to basically to glorify me. I mean, I didn't know any other way.

I was pretty lost, and a couple summers ago, our friend

Jay Weber, he's not here today, so I can say good things about him and not be embarrassed. So I love

Jay. He's a great guy. He kept at it. He kept hounding us, and he found an end to our house.

A casual conversation that my wife Mary was going to Bible study, so he pounced on that and kept telling us about Recast, how great it was, and I need to go.

And I kept promising, oh yeah, I'll be there. I'll be there. And my wife would come home and say how wonderful this place was, and how beautiful the people are here, and how much loved it was here.

And meanwhile, I kept just going to work and being myself.

Last December, I had a, during Christmas season, where it's just chaos, and I had one of my usual meltdowns, and I had my jumper there just watching me, and just, you know, a string of terrible words, you know.

I just, it was all about me. I always thought that everybody was against me, and this was a vast conspiracy to bring me down.

So I really felt like I bottomed out that day, and I went home, and I prayed that night, and I said,

God, this, you know, this isn't working out for me, so I need some help here.

You know, it's way beyond me here. So I think two days later,

Recast was having their Christmas party here early last December, and that was the one time

I was gonna show up, and just kind of play along, you know. When I got here, and as soon as I walked in the door, it just, it felt like I was home.

It was incredible. Everyone here was so accepting, and it was just, you could just feel love in the room.

And I heard Bill give his testimony, and it just really, just really struck me.

And boy, I just knew there was something a lot better for me. So I spent the next couple months coming here, and then

I started meeting with Pastor Don every once a week, and he was kind of guiding me, and leading me, you know, to Christ.

And then in February, I prayed, and I gave my life to Christ, and I accepted him, finally, you know, 45 and a half years.

And I felt going up to that point, there was a couple months of, you know, wow,

I have to give up a lot to do that. But all I was giving up was, was things that kept me from him, and you don't really realize that until afterwards.

But you don't, I mean, you're gaining so much. It's, it's unreal how my life has changed.

My, my heart's changed. I, so many desires I had before are gone.

I, my desire is to, you know, to please God, and to be more Christ -like, and Christ -centered.

And it's, it's, it's amazing. I'm still in my rookie year here, but it's, it's, it's working out pretty good.

I just want to, I want to continue to grow. I want to continue to, to know more, and just be closer to God.

It's, and I think recast. I think God's brought me to this point, and he's, he's, he's been patient with me for all these years, and this is my chance.

I think this is where I'm supposed to be. So, thank you so much for listening. Make yourself at home, and feel free to get up, and, and top off your coffee, or whatever you need to do, just to kind of keep your focus on God's Word as we walk through it.

I read the text, and I realized that where I started could be a little bit confusing if you weren't here last week, so let me catch you up a little bit.

Paul had gone into the temple to pray, and to basically be purified, to go through a ritual washing last week, and he got mobbed by a crowd, and had the tar beat out of him.

In the outer court of the temple, they drug him out of the inner courts, drug him into the outer courts, and started beating him, trying to literally take his life.

The Jews were so upset. There were all kinds of misunderstandings, and people were saying that he had taken

Gentiles in, and defiled the inner temple, and done all of these bad things, and they were all lies, but he was basically being abused, and they were, again, they were trying to take his life.

So Roman soldiers flooded down into the courtyard, and brought him into protective custody, while he's being led by the man who is in charge of over a thousand troops there in Jerusalem, a man by the title

Tribune. He has over a thousand, according to the Roman military structure.

He's leading Paul up the steps in chains, bound as a prisoner, and while he's going,

Paul politely requests that he might address the crowd. In the midst of discussion back and forth between Paul and the

Tribune, he realizes Paul isn't the guy he thinks he is, doesn't have any clue what all of this wrangle has been about.

He just saw a mob trying to kill somebody down in the temple, so that's all he knows. So he's like, sure, you can address the crowd.

I think probably because the Tribune is going, I have no clue why everybody's angry at you. Maybe if you open your mouth and speak,

I will get some insight into why everybody's so upset right now. He's just trying to keep peace. While Pentecost is going on, hundreds of thousands of people flooding

Jerusalem at this time, big festival going on, and things could get dicey very quick for the Romans if the

Jews have a revolt at this time. So he's got to squash this really quick. So that's the setting of what was going on last week.

And I asked you, okay, so the Tribune grants Paul permission to turn and address the crowd.

He's standing on steps. He's actually got a vantage point looking down over. If he's standing on the stairs, getting ready to be taken up into the fortress of Antonia, he's got the courtyard laid out below him.

The temple is the backdrop right behind the crowd that has just tried to kill him. What would you say?

You've just had a crowd try to take your life. You're beaten, you're bruised, probably got some separated ribs, some blood somewhere.

He's probably already starting to swell. Okay, what would you say? They have just beaten you for no good cause.

You don't even necessarily understand fully why everybody, why the fists were falling, but you do know that they've accused you of some specific things.

How many of you would actually admit that maybe the first thing that you want to do is set the record straight? Like the very first thing that you want to do is defend yourself?

Anybody willing to raise their hand and say that's probably the first thing that comes out of my mouth is I did not take, they accused him of taking a specific man.

They said, Trophimus, this Ephesian Gentile, you took into the temple. We saw you with him earlier this week and you took him in.

How many of you might say, I didn't take Trophimus into the temple. Maybe that would be something that you would want to say.

I didn't do this. I have not defiled the temple. Or he's being accused of hating Jews and hating their traditions.

How many maybe say, I don't hate Jews. As a matter of fact, I am a Jew. Like maybe that would be what you would tend to say is like defend yourself.

Well it is interesting because Paul is actually going to offer a defense and he's gonna actually use the word defense here in just a moment.

But look at the first words that come out of Paul's mouth as he turns to address the crowd. He says brothers and fathers.

He addresses this group of men that have been trying to take his life and he addresses them as brothers and fathers.

How many of you that's what's going on in your mind as this group, this mob has just beat you. You're gonna, hey kin, hey friends, hey family.

That's what he says. Respectful terms of relationship and kinship. Identifies himself with his accusers and says, hey we're in this together.

And as verse 2 indicates, he speaks to them in the Hebrew language which gets their attention. I'd imagine it says it got very quiet, even more quiet when he begins, when the crowd realizes

Judah's speaking Hebrew, okay. And he can, he's very fluent. We see that Paul knew

Greek very well. He knows Hebrew very well. He probably also spoke some

Latin as well as a Roman citizen. So he can get around and he's a very educated man and he addresses them in the

Hebrew language. How many of you think it might have been a little bit eerie? Have you ever been in a crowd that was silent? Have any of you ever been in a huge crowd and it was quiet?

It's eerie to see that many people gathered together in silence would be just bizarre.

Especially if you set it against the backdrop of the commotion, the shouting, the craziness that had just happened when they were trying to take his life.

The crowd is silent and he is addressing them in Hebrew. He indicates in verse 1 that what he is going to do is indeed give a defense but it's really awesome what he chooses to do for his defense.

His story, his testimony is going to be his defense. He tells them a story.

How many of you know, like I said earlier, there's power in a story, isn't there? Nothing, I can share with you facts,

I can share it with you statistics, or I can tell you a story and stories are what stick, right? That's what's gonna hang in there and it gets their attention.

It's interesting then to note how educated Paul is. If you read the book, how many of you read the book of Romans?

Have you read the book of Romans? That's written from the pen of Paul, extremely well organized and detailed description of the gospel and nuances that sometimes,

I mean it takes scholars just their entire life to just pick apart a couple verses of the book of Romans.

How many of you would say Paul was very intelligent, very intellectual? He'd read his writings, read Colossians, beautiful poetry, beautiful ability to spell things out in detail and what does he choose to do?

He sets the bar quite low for us. He says, I'm gonna do, I'm gonna demonstrate to all of you here at Recast exactly how to go about defending the faith.

Share your story. How many of you would admit that you could probably share your story?

You could tell somebody about your life and your encounter with Jesus Christ? How many of you think that sometimes for yourself you set the bar higher than that?

You're like, I gotta be able to answer every question about creation, this, that, and all of this stuff and I have to have all the answers before I'm gonna tell somebody about Jesus.

How many of you have ever felt that way before, being honest? Okay, sometimes we set the bar way high. Paul, this extremely intelligent, extremely academically gifted individual, sets the bar way low and he says, anybody can do what

I'm about to do. Any of you. If you're in Christ, you can do this. Tell your story.

Just share what he has done for you. Where you were before, talk about your encounter with Jesus Christ and where you've been since, where he's brought you.

Just like Mike did for us this morning, to accurately just convey his story and the way that God has come into his life and changed him.

It's pretty cool. He starts with his birth here and after all, isn't that kind of where our story starts, right?

He starts right from the beginning. He says, you know, I was born in Tarsus, in the middle of Turkey, a

Roman city up there in what's modern -day Turkey. He moved to Jerusalem, though, quickly. He was raised in the very place where they're standing.

As a young child, he ran around Jerusalem and the streets of Jerusalem. The words raised or brought up, depending on your translation there, imply that he moved to Jerusalem at an early age.

We don't know. Scholars debate back and forth whether his parents moved with him or whether they sent him to Jerusalem for an education.

All of that is unclear, but the fact of the matter is, Paul was born in Tarsus. Sometime at an early age, he moved to Jerusalem.

He didn't just move to Jerusalem, but he says he was educated under the very prominent Jewish scholar named

Gamaliel. One of the most prominent scholars of the era.

He was raised learning under the sky, which really, to be selected out for that high honor, to have been a student of Gamaliel implies a very high religious aptitude that either his parents saw it in him or the

Jewish leaders saw it in him. Whatever it was, it was a high standing. Maybe his parents had some connections.

We don't really know all the ins and outs of how he got to the place where he was studying under this eminent scholar, but he was.

The fact of the matter is, he was being groomed to be a Jewish leader. Something about Paul and his young life, they identified it and they said, this guy is going to be a leader.

As a matter of fact, we see him rubbing shoulders as a young boy, a young man, with the who's who of the leadership in Jerusalem.

When we're gonna see in just a moment, he was there at the stoning of Stephen, and what was he doing?

Does anybody remember what Paul did at the stoning of Stephen? He was guarding their coats.

How many of you know if you're gonna let somebody guard something that's worth a lot of money to you, you're going to trust them?

And he is there, and he's the one who was stationed there. So all of these who's who, the elite, who are taking off their clothes for range of motion to kill

Stephen, just a horrible thing, but I mean they're taking their cloaks off so that they can swing rocks faster and better, and he's there guarding their coats at that event.

So even back in history, he was there with them, and he's being groomed to be a leader. He was a zealous adherent, he says, to the strict manner of the law.

In other words, he was a good law -abiding Jewish boy. Okay, he was he was following the law carefully, even as a child.

And it's amazing the intense clarity with which Paul sees his current situation. He's just been beaten by this crowd, he's got now an opportunity to address them, he's addressing them in Hebrew, and if you look at the end of verse 3 and the beginning of verse 4, he acknowledges that their zeal for God expressed in beating him, their zeal for God, is what has led them to beat him.

And it's almost implied that Paul sympathizes with them. He understands why they beat him.

He gets it. He's like, I used to be there. Look at the end of verse 3. He says,

I was educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day.

All of you are operating right now out of zeal for God. And then he goes on in verse 4,

I persecuted this way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women. What is Paul in essence saying?

I get it. I get it. I know why you're doing what you do. How many of you, how many of you, you know, the bruises, the pain that you're experiencing would kind of maybe forego your ability to sympathize with those beating you?

Okay, I'm the only one. Oh, there's four of us. Okay, the rest of you are like, yeah, I'd be right there with Paul. I'd just totally be like,

I get it. I know. I know. It's all good. I'm not where, I have a hard time putting myself in Paul's shoes in that situation because just getting, getting the tar beat out of him and he's like, and I know why you did it.

I understand. I used to do the same thing to people. So I, I can just totally relate to where you're coming from on this.

I was just like all of you, zealous for God and I even did what you've done, persecuting, he says, the way, the, the phrase that was used for Christianity back in the day.

They called it the way and he says, I didn't just persecute. You see, you were unsuccessful in the way that I would have gone about it because I persecuted the way to the death.

I was good at it. Does that ever hit you? What was Paul like before he encountered Jesus Christ?

He was a rough guy. Paul even admits to having been an equal opportunity persecutor.

He arrested both men and women, locking them away, sealing their doom. Thank you.

But he recognizes that some in the crowd know this from firsthand experience. He says, I was a persecutor and I persecuted and, but, but I'm, I'm speaking to you and you all know it.

We know that the crowd that was beating him knew him. He was raised in that city. He was raised in Jewish circles.

Who's beating him down here? Jews? They knew him. Many of them in the crowd that day knew

Paul firsthand. He says, I had once run with you guys. You used to be my people.

And even the high priest in the Sanhedrin, he says, the whole council could testify that I had been, that Paul had been an emissary of their persecution.

He says, you sent me with letters to the Jews in Damascus. Asking them to turn over Christians to arrest and extradition to be imprisoned and eventually to be killed back in Jerusalem.

To be, to be removed from Damascus and brought back and put on trial and some to be killed.

So Paul has clearly indicated who he was before encountering Christ. A good testimony acknowledges our separation from God.

Even if you were saved at an early age, you were no worse than, you were no less bad than a hardened criminal.

Did you know that? And some of us, some of us the fact of the matter is if you think about your own personal testimony, how many of you would say

I was saved, I gave my life over to Jesus, I encountered him, I had that experience and I was under 10 years old when that happened in my life?

Okay, a handful of you. How many of you would say it was over 10 years of age when that happened in your life and that transformation happened?

Those that, those of you who raised your hand first and said you were under 10, you might need a more theological understanding of where you were in Christ.

Does that make sense? So I turned, I was saved when I was 8 and I turned to Scripture to see what was true of me.

Because how many of you know I didn't do a lot of significant crazy off the wall. I was never in prison before I was 8.

I never, I mean do you, are you getting what I'm saying? I mean some of you have to turn to Scripture to see what is true of a person who is not a sinner.

I don't know how much I had really sinned by that point, but I certainly was a sinner. I certainly was under the righteous condemnation of God, of a holy and righteous

God, because I was a sinner. Does that make sense? So some of you have to look back there. Some of you have a little bit more colorful past, right?

Did you admit to that? I mean don't raise your hand, but um, but some of you had a more colorful past and you have some specific things and some people are like, oh that's an awesome testimony.

That's super cool because you did drugs. Do you know what I'm talking about? Have you ever been there and been like, man why does he get that testimony?

I was saved in church in an Awana program, for goodness sake. You know, my parents went to church and that's boring.

No, that is awesome. That is the glory of God. When a sinner repents and turns from their ways and comes to understand

Christ and encounters the living Savior, that is an awesome story. I want to hear it.

Okay, if you're four years old, five years old, you're in a backyard Bible Club, you went to vacation Bible school, or you were a pimp or a prostitute or a drug dealer,

I love to hear stories of lives turned and changed because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I want you to raise your hand and say amen to that.

I love hearing stories of how people's lives have been changed. I love that. I live for that.

Paul had changed. I'm sorry, Paul had openly declared what he was like before he was with Christ.

He hasn't changed yet. The fact of the matter is, without Christ you would spend eternity, even with the vilest of sinners, regardless of what you have done.

And often we forget just how black and dark our sin is in the face of a holy and righteous God. The fact of the matter is, you know, when you talk about raising your hand before you were 10 or after you're 10 or what,

Paul was a bad guy. Paul was bad. Now he says, he's gonna say later in one of his letters, that I was the chiefest of sinners.

I count myself the chiefest of sinners. I don't know if you've ever heard that Paul said that. Called himself the chiefest, the highest -ranking sinner in the world, okay?

A lot of us want to read exaggeration into that and if you've heard that in Sunday school or you heard a sermon on that, you might tend to think, well

I'm supposed to say that about myself too? Do you know what I'm saying? I mean you're supposed to just, all good

Christians are supposed to agree with that. I'm a really bad sinner. I'm the worst of sinners and kind of say it patronizingly.

Paul didn't say it patronizingly and Paul was not exaggerating. He was, he meant it.

He felt that in his heart and in his soul. He's like, I was the worst of sinners. He was a really bad guy.

This is barely any exaggeration, okay? He had killed people. Did you know that? He says he persecuted them to what?

To death. He had blood on his hands. He was a murderer.

And what did it take to get on his hit list? Be a Christian. That's it.

Be a follower of Jesus Christ. You were on Paul's hit list. He separated fathers from their children, husbands and wives separated, some killed.

He confined women, think women like mothers and daughters, to dungeons where they died.

By the way, a prison sentence in this time was a death sentence, okay? This is not a, you know, it's not, they didn't have cable

TV, they didn't have a courtyard time for good behavior or getting out early. This was, you were going to die of a disease if you had a 20 -year sentence in one of these prisons.

You were gonna die of a disease or malnourishment or just neglect or another prisoner was gonna get you, okay?

It was just that bad in Roman times. So, I mean, you can look at it, you're gonna look it up and verify that. It was, it was, it was a basic death sentence to be imprisoned for any duration during this era.

But verse 6 shows the turn. This is where the turn happens. I use the word turn because the word turn is an awesome picture of repentance.

It's a turn. That's what happens in people's lives. Every testimony of faith in Jesus Christ has a turn.

I live as a pastor to see the turn. I've seen the turn in many of you.

It's awesome. Have you ever witnessed the turn in somebody's life? Do you know what

I'm talking about? Where they turn the corner, they change? Nothing in life compares to the glory of seeing

God bring about the turn in a person's life. Where the light of Christ shines into the darkness and a life is radically transformed.

And the picture of the turn is that Paul, with all of his zeal and passion for God, is running 100 % this direction against God.

And it's like he encounters Jesus Christ going full steam and knocks him off course 180 degrees the other way, and Paul is going 200 % for Christ.

That's the kind of turn we see in this passage. He encounters the living Christ, the resurrected

Messiah, and is completely altered. His life is never the same.

That's the turn. A blinding light, he says, I was on the way to Damascus and a blinding light appeared that outshone the noonday sun.

Okay, it's noon. He identifies. It's noon. He's going into Damascus and a bright light shines and blinds him.

Brighter than the sun. He fell to the ground and heard the voice of Jesus. And Luke thought this event so important in the life of the early church that he records it three times.

This is the second time we've heard this story. Early in the book of Acts, Luke recorded it in a historical context.

Now Paul is going to share it here, and then in a couple of chapters we're going to see him share it again. It's what he knew to say, and it was his story, and he keeps saying it over and over again.

Paul admits to not knowing immediately who he is speaking with. He hears this voice, sees this blinding light, but Jesus positively identified himself as Jesus of Nazareth.

He says who he is, and he also accuses Paul of persecuting him. He says, I'm Jesus of Nazareth. You know, the one that you're persecuting?

The one that you're against? Well, by Paul standing on the steps of the fortress of Antonia looking over these

Jews, what's he kind of doing in a backhanded way? Who are they persecuting then? They're persecuting

Jesus, too, because they're persecuting him, doing the same things that he did. How many of you know that sometimes just by sharing your story with people, even if you just share it in a...

you don't have to tailor your story to people, by the way. You just share your story and let God do with it what he wants to do.

How many of you know that? That's an awesome thing, but you share your story, and sometimes you're going to point out people are going to be uncomfortable with your story, because it's going to point out areas of their lives that are futile or are petty or are just highlights those things.

That's what he's doing here. Paul points out that those who are with him present when the light shone can verify that something miraculous happened, but they couldn't understand the words that Jesus said, but they saw the light and they heard the voice.

He says, you can validate this by talking with those who are with me. Paul was blinded, and he had to be led into Damascus where he was told to await further directions.

He had a couple of days to sit in darkness and consider his life and the reality of Jesus Christ. The Lord led a devout

Jewish Christian named Ananias to heal him of his blindness and to confirm his calling, and it's valuable to Paul's current situation that the man who validated his calling and his ministry and his salvation and his change was a devout

Jewish man, because who is he speaking to? He's speaking to this Jewish crowd, and he can say, look, a devout, well -respected

Jew is the one who came to me and validated that all of this was true and that I'm called.

Ananias confirms the unique nature of Paul's conversion. He says that the God of the Old Testament, it's interesting that he ties that in here in the text, that the

God of the Old Testament appointed Paul to know his will, to actually see the Righteous One, the

Righteous One being an Old Testament term for the Jewish Messiah, so to actually see the Righteous One, and that Paul even had the privilege of hearing directly from his mouth that he was called to go to the

Gentiles, to go to, I'm sorry, just to go to witness for everyone, and we're going to see the call to the

Gentiles specifically in a minute. So Paul received his calling from where? From God, right?

He received it from God. I wonder if the crowd at the foot of the steps gets a little bit shifty.

What do you picture going on? Okay, there was silence, and he's kind of walking them through this, and what is, does it get louder?

Are they starting to talk? I wonder if any are believing in their heart that just maybe, maybe there's some truth to this.

Maybe Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. How many of you know that it wouldn't be very, it's reasonable that we don't have any results from this?

We don't have anybody shouting out in the crowd, I believe! Because what's gonna happen to them? What did they just try to do to Paul for believing this stuff?

It's no wonder that we don't have any, I have a hard time believing that Paul shared his testimony and not a single person is gonna be moved in their heart to acknowledge something, but to actually shout out,

I believe, would be suicide at this point. Verse 16 explains that Paul had to be prompted to be baptized and call in the name of Jesus, and it's important to note that in Greek and even in English, baptism is not causative here.

So this verse looks a little bit weird to us, and now why do you wait, rise, and be baptized, and wash away your sins?

When we see the word baptism and we see the word washed right in the same verse, what do we think?

Those are the same thing, so there's just one command, but it's not because Paul takes the time to say both, both are distinct.

And as a matter of fact, if you look at the end of verse 16, it's more related to washing away your sins is more related to calling on his name than it is to baptism.

So how do you wash away your sins? By calling on his name, not by being baptized.

Baptism does not wash away your sins. Now is baptism important? We do get that from this text, so that baptism and salvation are to be closely tied together.

That's the picture, that there is a symbolism that is very, very important about this concept of being washed with the water, being put under and buried in your sins, being buried with Christ and being raised to a new life, washed and cleansed and purified.

It's a picture, an image of what's going on in your heart by believing or by calling on the name of the Lord. Does that make sense?

That's what's imaged or pictured in the rite or the ritual of baptism is what is already transpired in your heart, being washed by believing and then being baptized.

Verse 17 through 21 record another event in Paul's life later, so we've seen what he was before Christ, we've seen the turn, and now we're gonna see him following Christ and it's significant about his growth and faith in Jesus.

About three years after his conversion, Paul went back to the temple in Jerusalem, went back to Jerusalem in particular, one time he went to pray in the temple.

Now I can't imagine that he's standing in the place where he's standing saying this and not making some hand gestures. You put yourself in these situations, do you see where he's standing?

Can you imagine he's standing on steps overlooking the courtyard of the temple and this 60 -foot tall building is right in front of him called the temple, and he says, years ago, three years after I had come to faith in Christ, I went to that building over there,

I went to the temple and I was praying and while I was praying right over there, I went into a trance and in the trance

I encountered Jesus Christ. He appeared to me and he told me that you guys would not accept me.

He told me that the Jews would not accept me and that I needed to get out of Jerusalem right then and there or else it wasn't going to go well for me.

Now Paul at this point, it might be a bit confusing what he says. If you just read the text, verses 19 and 20 could be a little bit confusing to us until you realize what

Paul tries to do is educate Jesus. So what Paul's gonna do in 19 and 20 is not necessarily a good idea.

Any of you here ever try to educate God? Tell him about your life?

Tell him, but God you don't know, I mean you don't know how hard it is at my workplace or God you don't know, I mean, what my situation is.

I mean let me explain it to you. I'm actually, it's like, God did you know, it would be me five years ago,

God did you know that I have stage fright? Did you know that? Did you know I don't like being up in front of people and talking?

And he's like, I don't really, put that put that aside. You know, that's okay, you're gonna still preach at Recast every week.

Thanks, thanks, I appreciate that and God's grace is sufficient for that. Or like Moses standing before the burning bush, what does

Moses say? He educates God, doesn't he? But God, my mouth, I don't speak well.

I don't know what it was about Moses, but he's like, I don't talk good. I don't talk very good.

I don't know, I don't know what it was, but he's just like, I don't speak well and God's like, who made your mouth?

Who did that? Who's responsible for that mouth and the tongue and all that stuff that you got in there? I made it,

I can handle it, right? So Paul's gonna literally try to educate Jesus and say, my ministry is best in Jerusalem.

I know you're telling me to go, I know you're telling me to get out of Dodge, to leave, but you know what? Listen, I can relate to these people.

They know me, they understand me. He reasons that he used to be just like them. He said, I used to imprison Jews, I used to do just what they're doing.

I mean, imprison Christians and beat them and even when Stephen was killed, I was there, present, they trusted me.

Jesus, you ought to leave me in Jerusalem. You ought to leave me here because I can have a much better ministry right here than I can out there to the Gentiles.

Give me a break. Me to the Gentiles? I'm a Jew, how's that gonna work? And what does

Jesus say? Jesus stands by his guns on this one. He's not gonna be dissuaded. He says, no,

Paul, go, command, go. You see, the

Lord had different plans for Paul that entailed him traveling far away to Gentile lands and look at the results.

We've had a chance to look at chapter after chapter after chapter of God doing amazing things through Paul among the

Gentiles. Those of you have been a part of this series all the way through, how many of you think that God used

Paul among the Gentiles? Awesome stuff. So, and actually what's interesting to note is if you go back in the historical account in the book of Acts, earlier when all of that stuff was going down, we don't see there that Paul had this encounter with it in the temple.

The Christians actually literally have to take him physically and remove him from Jerusalem and put him on a ship in Caesarea and ship him off to Tarsus.

I don't get the impression that he was super eager to go, even at that point. The Christian Church in Jerusalem are the ones who actually grab him and say, you're going to die if you stay in Jerusalem, you need to go.

You see what I'm saying? So historically, he had to still be removed. At this point, the

Jewish mob at the foot of the stairs goes nutty because he mentioned the word Gentiles.

Okay, that's what they've been accusing him of all along, being friends with Gentiles, and now he's mentioned the word Gentiles. They go nutty, they totally freak, they've been taking off their cloaks as if to say, you who once guarded our cloaks, if we had rocks, it would be done right now.

You see what they're doing? They're taking their cloaks off, like saying, we're ready, just give us rocks, we'll take you out.

And not only that, but they're throwing dirt at him for lack of rocks. They're picking up dirt clods and chucking them at him.

How many of you know that this would not end well for Paul if he wasn't in Roman custody and there were rocks around? It's just fortunate there's not a pile there.

Paul's testimony wasn't received so well, was it? The Tribune orders him to be carried into the barracks to be examined by flogging.

How many of you think that sounds like fun? Examined by flogging? The words used for flogging, the

Greek word incorporates actually the title of the instrument used, the

Roman phlegm is the name of it. Some people call it a phlegm or phlogelum. It was a really horrible instrument.

It was a wooden handle with leather strips attached to it, metal and bone attached to the end of those whips, so that you can imagine what that would do with a nice swing down into human flesh.

The majority of people who went through an official Roman flogging, what he's just been sentenced to, the majority of them are disabled.

The majority of them are handicapped for life. They actually bear a handicap, either unable to walk or some kind of physical ailment, and then some die.

Some actually die from this torture. So he's going to be examined by flogging.

Great, sounds like fun. The Tribune has gotten no closer to an answer why this has all begun, and so he's like,

I got to get to the bottom of it. So the soldiers stretch him out, putting leather around his wrists and then stretching him out to make sure that he can't get away while they're flogging him, and that was a really cruel and common practice method of torturing in the

Roman Empire to get to the truth. Some would actually say that they did not believe, Roman soldiers would not believe that you would share the truth until you were flogged.

So do you see the situation? It's like if Paul were to confess right now and say everything that's against him, they wouldn't believe it because he hasn't gone through any duress yet.

See the logic there? You have to be flogged in order to get the truth, that's just the assumption. So Paul picks the opportune time to reveal that he is a

Roman citizen. Oh yeah, good. So we don't have to read about what that would have looked like.

If he appealed to his citizenship, think about the timing of this. If he appeals while he's standing on the steps addressing the

Jews, what's that gonna do? It's gonna make them all the more angry. He would have never had a chance to talk with them if he had said he was a

Roman citizen because what are they angry about? That he loves Gentiles. That's the primary criticism they have and they'd be just like, yes, see he's one of them.

So he picks his time well. He's alone with the Romans and he's like, oh hey by the way, and he's even a bit sarcastic in the

Greek. It's like, by the way, he's stretched out, remember? By the way, is what you're doing permissible?

I'm uncondemned and I'm a Roman citizen. The guy who is holding the instrument of flogging probably drops it.

You probably hear that hit the stone floor. He rushes up to the tribune, says, what's the scoop?

Do you realize what we were about to do? This guy's a Roman citizen. The tribune doesn't believe it, has to come down and verify it.

He rushes down to the courtyard. He seems doubtful in verse 28. Look at verse 28. There's doubt there expressed in,

I bought the citizenship for a large sum. You don't look that wealthy. How in the world could you possibly be a Roman citizen?

It doesn't say it in the text but it's quite likely that to avert this, Paul carried his little wooden inscription with him of citizenship that was granted to Roman citizens.

Why else? I mean, do you think he would just take his word for it? So it's implied somewhere in there that this guy, this tribune is actually convinced that he really is a

Roman citizen. Under the reign of Claudius, many people became Roman citizens by bribery.

So you would bribe a local official and then that official would give a cut all the way up to the emperor and then your name would be included in the royal citizenship.

But it would be a large sum of money. Think like five to ten years worth of income. I mean, you'd have to be extremely wealthy to purchase your citizenship.

This dude's name is Claudius Lysias. We're going to see that in chapter 23, next chapter. So his name is

Claudius Lysias. Interesting to note who was the previous emperor before the current emperor at the time in the events that we're seeing here.

Claudius is his name, Emperor Claudius, and it was common practice for whoever sponsored your citizenship for you to take their first name, take their name as your first name.

So we see consistency in Roman historical documentation and the account in the

Book of Acts. This guy's name is he's named after the emperor who granted his citizenship. Do you see that?

That's kind of cool just how that accuracy lines up. Paul reveals that he's a citizen by birth. He didn't have to buy anything.

I was born a citizen. Everybody shrinks back from fear. They fear him. He outranks everybody in the room when he says,

I'm a citizen by birth. Better a blood -borne citizen of Rome than a commander in the military who had to buy their citizenship.

He literally, in the eyes of the Roman Emperor, outranks the man who has arrested him.

Even the Tribune is fearful that he had bound him publicly. Now it wasn't, the phrase is there in the text, just that he bound him, but it was against Roman law to publicly humiliate or to shame or to bind or to put chains on a

Roman citizen, especially one who had not been indicted yet. And so this guy knows the centurion who's holding the flog, it means his head.

If he had swung that one lash off with his head, the Tribune may be his head, at least his job.

He's at least out on the streets, a poor beggar asking for crumbs of bread.

Okay, that's the bare minimum of what's going to happen to that dude. So this is a pretty significant thing in historical evidences.

The Tribune is still no closer to understanding who Paul is or why everyone hates him, so he calls together in verse 30, basically the

High Jewish Council known as the Sanhedrin, and the next time that we get together and talk about Acts, we're going to walk through what

Paul says to them and how they are going to basically criticize him and bring an indictment against him.

So Paul's testimony did not end, at least as far as we see in the text, with hundreds of Jews accepting Jesus, but his testimony does serve as a model for us to share ours.

And so I just want to point out three components of a good testimony, and I want you to, as I walk through these components,

I want you to think about your life. Okay, and the first element is Paul clearly declares what he was before Jesus.

And I want all of us to take some time to think about what you would say for this. What were you before you encountered

Christ? All of us were sinners separated from the love of God by our sins.

Some, I said earlier, have a more colorful past, but that does not mean a greater salvation.

Salvation is awesome wherever it's found. We never know who our story might impact, and so thinking about where we've been, certainly not glorifying in the sins of our past.

Have you ever heard that testimony? And have you ever heard that person who's just like making it look like it was super fun before, and I was like, oh,

I had all this money, and I was doing all this, and this, and this, and it's like, wait a minute, you're sounding like you really are proud of that, or that's really good.

That's not really good, right? But think about your past, and what

God has saved you from. Second thing, Paul spoke about the light of Christ breaking into his darkness. When did that happen for you?

When did you encounter Jesus Christ? Think about that. And there may be some that are sitting here that are saying, I don't really know,

I don't know if I have encountered Jesus Christ yet. I'd love to talk with you at the end of the service, if you're saying,

I don't really know. You see, salvation, we sang earlier, looks more like an introduction to a person, and a relationship, and falling in love, than it does an education in a classroom, or a list of doctrines to believe.

So many of us, I think, have pictured salvation to be like, oh, I sent to this, yep, check, I believe that,

I believe that, I believe that, done. It's a relationship, it's an encounter with the living Savior.

Have you encountered Him? Have you met Him? Do you have a relationship with Him?

Have you seen your past in light of, your past in light of your sin against God?

Have you identified your sinfulness, and seen Him break into that? You see, because Jesus broke into human history in a manger over 2 ,000 years ago,

He came to pay the price for all of us. If you sense, if you're here, and you sense that He's breaking into your story, do not put

Him off. Seek Him, pray to Him, seek answers about Him. Welcome Him, let

Him be your King. Ask Him for forgiveness, ask Him for salvation, and He will provide wholeness and healing for your sin -crushed soul.

He provides restoration. And then the last thing Paul speaks about, of God's hand in his life after his conversion, he basically spells out an ongoing relationship with Jesus.

Jesus was leading him, guiding him, directing him. You see, where Paul wanted to stay in Jerusalem, God told him to go to the

Gentiles. For us following, God should look a lot like walking in His ways. Jesus said, if you love me, you will keep my commands.

Where are we going to find the things that please God? In here, right? And not as a method of following rules, and writing down regulations, and things like that, but out of love and gratitude for the salvation that He's provided for us.

Not as a means of growing in prominence in God's eyes, or being extra special to Him, or making

Him think we're really awesome, but as a way of saying, thanks.

Thanks, I'll follow you. I'll follow you because you have done such an amazing thing for me in sacrificing your son.

Those here who are in Christ, I ask you this question, are you letting Jesus shine through you? Are you letting others see

Christ in your life? See, Paul was an apostle. He was highly educated.

He was used by the Spirit to write huge chunks of Scripture, and yet when he had a chance to speak to a mob of Jews in Jerusalem, he did something that everyone in this room can do.

He told the story of his life with God. I'd encourage you to hone your own story, to fashion it, to write it down.

There's an opportunity online that Kyle Douglas is putting together. He's working on our website, and he's putting together a section for people to be able to share your story.

How many of you have been on our website? A handful of you. Go to www .recastchurch .com

and go check that out, and there's going to be a place for you to share. You can share your story anonymously, or you can put your name to it.

I think it's kind of powerful when you put a name to it, but if you just don't want to share that, that's fine. But how many of you think it would be cool if you would go to our website and read stories of people whose lives have been changed?

I love that thought, Kyle's idea, and so be looking for that. Probably in the email that we send out this week, we'll have a link to that, so make sure that we have your current email address, and you'll get a link to that, and you can go on there and read stories, and share stories, and things like that.

But literally writing it down, don't you know that sometimes writing it down, it presses it on your heart that there's been change.

You see that, and you recognize that time when Christ broke into your story, and you do that for your own benefit, but you also do that for the benefit of others, being able to share that.

See, people in our world will argue with our theology, and have you ever had a doctrinal wrangle with somebody where they didn't agree with you, they didn't believe the same way as you, or they didn't see the same thing in Scripture as you?

You can argue with each other's interpretation of Scripture until you're blue in the face. I don't know if you know, but it would take a very calloused heart to argue with you about your story of your encounter with Jesus Christ.

I haven't had it happen to me yet. Share your story. That has power to impact and change people's lives.

Let's be witnesses testifying to the goodness of the Almighty God who has broken into our sin cursed story and brought restoration and new life.