SNBS - Paul Before Conversion

Good evening and welcome to Sunday Night Bible Study with Pastor Josiah Shipley.

It is August 16th, we're halfway through August now, and we are in the middle of studying a biography of the

Apostle Paul. Last week we went over his conversion, we're going to be a little out of order this week.

This week we're going to do his life before his conversion, next week we'll do his life after his conversion, i .e.

his mission trips. So I wanted to, I didn't know exactly what direction I was going to take it, but last week

I wanted to make sure everyone had a baseline of the conversion experience of Paul. So this week we're going to talk for a little while about who he was before his conversion, next week we'll talk about who he was after his conversion.

Because keep in mind guys, if someone gets saved, gets converted, and there's no change between their life before and their life after, no change at all, no conviction, no repentance, no holiness, that person wasn't saved because if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature.

All things have passed away, behold all have become new, 2 Corinthians 5 .17. So a couple announcements and we'll jump in.

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Don't forget our wow moments on Thursday nights, our Monday morning timeouts with Pastor Ben, Tuesday night

Bible studies with Pastor Jeff, hymn histories on Wednesdays, we had a really awesome one a couple weeks ago with Brother Bill, that was awesome, it's called

I Have Been Redeemed. And then Saturday we have question and answer sessions,

I hope you guys are liking those. We've been doing live for a few months now, interactive, hope you like yesterday's,

I hope those are going well. Okay, so here are our four main passages for today.

I'm going to go ahead and give them to you at the front, so for those of you that watch this and take notes, I'm going to go ahead and give you those passages at the front, let me know if this helps.

The first one is Acts chapter 22, a lot of Acts chapter 22, but Acts chapter 22.

Second one is Philippians chapter 3 verses 4 through 6. The third one is

Acts chapter 5, 33 through 39.

And the fourth one is Galatians 1 .14, Galatians 1 .14. Alright, so we're going to start in Acts chapter 22, keep in mind

Luke wrote the book of Acts, the only Gentile we know of that wrote books of the

Bible, wrote two of them actually. Alright, Luke chapter 22, and the first thing

I want you to know about Paul before his conversion, first off he was also called

Saul. If you go read Acts 13, it says Saul who was also called Paul. We often say that Jesus changed

Saul's name to Paul, that may be an odd way of putting it, because Acts 13 says

Saul who was also called Paul. It's more likely that Saul was a

Hebrew pronunciation of it and Paul was a Latin or Roman pronunciation of it. I could be wrong about that, but that just seems more logical to me.

At any rate, it is very clear that he preferred Paul, because all 13 of his letters he signed

Paul, not Saul. But Saul was his original name, his

Hebrew name if you want to think of it that way. He's from the tribe of Benjamin. There was another Saul from the tribe of Benjamin, King Saul, which is who

Saul would have been named after. Alright, so keep in mind since we know the Bible wasn't originally written in chapter and verse format, even though we're reading

Acts 22, the passage we're reading actually starts in chapter 21, verse 39.

So if you have a Bible, it's just above it. If you have a phone, you have to flip back. We're actually going to start in chapter 1, verse 39, and read through 22, verse 5.

So again, we're going to start in chapter 21, verse 39, and read through 22, verse 5.

Here we go. Paul replied, I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city.

I beg you, permit me to speak to the people. When he had given him permission, Paul, standing on the steps, motioned with his hand to the people, and there was a great hush.

He addressed them in the Hebrew language, saying, Brothers and fathers, hear the defense I now make before you.

And when they heard he was addressing in the Hebrew language, they became even more quiet, and he said, I am a

Jew born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel, according to a strict manner of 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 priests and the whole council of elders can bear witness.

From them I received letters to the brothers, and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished.

All right, I always pronounce this teacher's name right, I need Brother Bill to help me. Few things here guys, first off,

Paul was born in Tarsus, but raised in Jerusalem. Tarsus was no obscure city, this wasn't a small city, it's in Asia Minor on the far eastern side.

Modern day Turkey, far east. I don't have a map, maybe 300 miles north of Jerusalem, so a long way away for those times.

So he was raised there, I'm sorry, he was born in Tarsus, but he was raised in Jerusalem because as we'll find out in a minute, his parents sent him to be a student under Gamaliel.

Gamaliel, I wish I could say his name right, Gamaliel, I'm going to say Gamaliel, who was one of the most well known

Jewish teachers at that time. We'll talk more about him in just a minute. So, born in Tarsus, raised in Jerusalem under strict teaching of rabbinic code, and then he grew up and then got letters from the high priests, this was what we read last week in Acts chapter 8 and 9, to persecute the church.

Alright, he was born in the tribe of Benjamin, I'm going to flip over real quick to Philippians 3, 4 through 6.

Philippians 3, 4 through 6. This is some more insight. This is Paul writing about his own past, Philippians 3, 4 through 6.

Do I myself have reason to have confidence in the flesh? If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh,

I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin.

A Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law of Pharisee, as to zeal persecuting the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

But whatever was gained to me, I have counted as a loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss, in view of the surpassing worth of knowing

Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, in order

I may gain Christ. I had to read through verse 8, it's just beautiful. So guys,

Paul was a real deal Hebrew. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews. He's from one of the southern tribes, the tribe of Benjamin.

Paul was also a Roman citizen, okay. Now later on, 300 years later, the emperor is going to make all freed people

Roman citizens. But at this time, it meant something if you were a Roman citizen. Back in Acts 22, verse 25 -30,

Paul is getting flogged, and he tells the Roman citizen, it's not legal for you to flog a

Roman citizen. And they realized he was a Roman citizen, and the tribune said, I bought this citizenship for a large sum.

But Paul said, I'm a citizen by birth. So Paul did not buy his citizenship, he was born into it.

So we have to ask, how did his family become citizens? Well, there's a few theories on that, let me give you a few.

Number one, it's possible that his family purchased it. They were tent makers, like he was most likely.

We know that he was a tent maker, it's actually how he helped make his living whenever churches couldn't support his mission work on their own, he would make tents.

Priscilla and Aquila, he, it appears, bonded with them over this very fact, that they were tent makers as well.

Well guys, that wouldn't have been a low income, lower class thing. That would have been a middle class job, something people need, it was in high demand.

Sometimes we have a little warped view. I'm not saying, for example, Paul made a killing tent making, but same thing with Jesus and Joseph.

A carpenter would not have been a dirt poor person, that would have been middle class.

That's a skill. Sometimes we think, oh but they couldn't, there was no room at the inn so they had to do the whole manger thing, but they were traveling.

That wasn't their home, they were traveling to Bethlehem. I was listening to something about that recently.

Other ways you could get your citizenship, it's possible if you did special service in the military, sometimes they would grant you citizenship for you and your whole family.

One of our church fathers, a couple of them, Jerome being one of them, a couple centuries later, writes that they believed

Paul, I'm sorry, Paul's family, his father, grandfather, all of them, were carried as prisoners of war from Giskala to Tarsus and served as slaves to a

Roman citizen. After they worked off their debt, if you want to think of it that way, after they worked off their slavery, prisoners of war, they were granted freedom and citizenship and thus

Paul was born into a freed family and a citizenship family. That's according to one of our church fathers, doesn't make it biblical, doesn't make it necessarily true, could have been any number of these things, we don't know.

What's probable is that Paul's family, Paul probably came from money, Paul's family was probably well off by the time

Paul was born, they may not have been, they may have come as prisoners of war or whatever, but they were probably well off by the time he was born.

We know that even more because they sent him 300 miles south to Jerusalem to be trained under maybe the most well -known

Jewish teacher at the time, Gamaliel. A little bit about Gamaliel, he was a

Pharisee. Let's read Acts 5, this tells us, this is our best biblical account of Gamaliel, Acts chapter 5,

I'm going to start in verse 33, this is 33 -39. When they heard this they were enraged, this is the

Sanhedrin by the way. When they heard this they were enraged and wanted to kill them, but a

Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while.

And when he said this to them, men of Israel, take care of what you are about to do with these men. For before them,

I'm sorry, before these days, Theodosius rose up claiming to be somebody and a number of men, about 400 joined him, he was killed and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing.

After him, Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew some of the people way after him.

He too perished and all who followed him were scattered. Verse 38, so in this present case

I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone. For if this plan or this understanding is of man, it will fail.

But if it's of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God. So they took his advice.

Alright, so Peter and John are in jail, I believe this is where the Sanhedrin as well as the party of the

Sadducees, the captain, the council, so this is probably the

Sanhedrin but at least it's the council, I may have been wrong about that part. At either rate, we have

Sadducees and Pharisees there and we'll talk about the difference in a second.

They're enraged. Gamaliel is able to stand up and give advice saying, guys,

I don't know if this is of God or not but if it is, I don't want to fight against it so let's just let this play out and they listen to him.

That's a lot of pull if you're able to stop a whole council of angry people and convince them to not follow through with something that in their anger they want to do.

We read from the Mishnah, which is oral traditions of the

Pharisees, that Gamaliel was one of the 13 most influential

Jewish teachers in this time.

He may be the most well -known Jewish teacher in the world at this moment and Paul's family paid for Paul to be taught by him.

Now, I am not saying Gamaliel was a Christian. He probably was not.

He definitely was not when he taught Paul. Right here, I'm not saying this is his conversion. All I'm saying is he at least took time to heed if this was of God, even though they were talking about Jesus.

That says something. Okay, now, let's talk about the difference between Pharisees and Sadducees.

The Pharisees, we talked a little bit about last week, were the ultra -conservative group of Jews and the

Sadducees, think of them as kind of like the, I guess, left -wing liberal. That's probably not the best way to put it, but let me explain it this way.

The Pharisees believed you had to follow strict adherence to the law in order to receive salvation.

You had to obey it perfectly. The Sadducees were not really about following the whole law.

You know, well, yeah, God said this, but, of course, the

Pharisees followed the law and missed the whole part about Jesus, and they added to the law a lot and made that God's law.

They taught as the doctrines of men. They taught God's law. They also taught man's law and said it was

God's law. Does that make sense? The Sadducees didn't believe in a resurrection, the soul.

They didn't believe in any of that, and when I say the resurrection, I don't just mean the resurrection of Jesus. They didn't believe in the resurrection of our bodies on that day, even though Daniel 12, 2 says so.

They didn't believe what Daniel said in chapter 12. So pay careful attention to which group of Jews are asking

Jesus questions in the Gospels. So the Sadducees, since they don't believe in the resurrection, in Matthew 22, 31, they come up and ask him, trying to trick him, hey,

Jesus, if this woman had seven husbands, who's she going to be married to in heaven, since you believe they're all going to be resurrected up?

Jesus knew their hearts and knew their sarcastic question and said, have you not read what

God spoke to you through Moses? We've talked about that verse a lot. Just keep that in mind.

He quotes Moses from 1 ,500 years earlier and said, have you not read what God spoke to you?

Because it still applies to them today. Just like this Bible right here was written 2 ,000 years ago, 3 ,000 years ago, it still applies to us today, and it's

God speaking to us now. And by the way, the answer basically was, we don't marry in heaven, just like the angels don't.

So the Pharisees are normally going to ask questions like, well, how do you follow this law if you do this? And what about this law?

And Jesus is like, well, most of that's tradition. That's not God's law anyway. The Sadducees always ask questions about the resurrection of the dead because they don't believe in it.

So Gamaliel was a Pharisee, strict adherence to the law. And Paul believed he was obeying

God by persecuting Christians. As he was being taught by Gamaliel, a couple of things to keep in mind,

Galatians 1 .14, For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how

I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people.

So extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my father. Verse 15, But when he who had set me apart before I was born, who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the

Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anybody. Saul, Paul, was doing so good under Gamaliel, he was advancing beyond many of his contemporaries.

He was a rising star in Judaism. He was following the law.

He was following man's law that was taught as God's law. He was doing all of it. But when

God got a hold of him, all that changed. So guys,

Saul would have been doing what he thought was God's work. He would have been a good

Christian boy, a good church boy, but he wasn't saved. Our pastor

Jeff always says all the time, sitting in church doesn't make you a Christian anymore than standing in the garage makes you a car.

Just because Saul did all the right things, and he memorized books of the Bible, but he didn't really believe in his heart.

You see, God, he believed in God, but he didn't want to follow everything

God said. He wasn't Lord of his life. Saul taught man's law.

All these extra laws about how many steps you can take and all this stuff, all these different laws that aren't found in the

Bible, he was teaching and saying they're God's law. That's legalism. Legalism is making anything

God's law that's not God's law. Alright, so in summary,

Saul was born in Tarsus, but raised in Jerusalem under the tutelage of Gamaliel, one of the most well -known

Jewish teachers in the entire world at that time. Paul's family probably had money. Paul's from the tribe of Benjamin, which is where King Saul is from.

That's where his name's from. We're not exactly sure how his family became citizens, but that's okay. We know that Paul was born into it.

We know that the Pharisees were the ones who wanted strict adherence to God's law and to their own law, which they said was

God's law. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of a soul. We know that Paul was very zealous.

He was very strict in teaching man's law as God's law, and if you didn't follow it, he believed it was his right, and he believed it was even

God's will to have you arrested and killed. We see that he was very pleased to see

Stephen stoned in Acts chapter 7. As far as how old he was, he would have been anywhere between his late 20s and early 30s at his conversion, and that's about as far as we know.

All right, last thing on this, and we'll be done. Physical description of Paul.

Well, you know what? We'll get to the physical description next week. We'll get to the physical description next week when we talk about Paul after his salvation.

Okay, so I think we're good on this one.

Yep, I think we're good. All right guys, there's a little bit on Saul, who would be called

Paul. I hope this was helpful. I hope you learned something. Next week we'll talk about Paul after his conversion and some of his mission trips.

All right, I love you guys very much. I hope you have a great rest of your evening. Tune in for Pastor Ben's time out tomorrow morning.