Our king is still on the throne. Chapter 9 deals with Saul's conversion. We know of him as the Apostle Paul. He was Saul, a young Jewish rabbi with great potential. And so now we're going to see that he comes to Christ. And we already dealt with the first nine verses. We just need a little, real quick review on that. It said, "...then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest," now he's a rabbi, he's going to the Sadducees for permission, "...and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the way, any Christians, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem." He had a zeal for God, but it was not coupled with knowledge of God's Word. Now this guy probably had the entire Old Testament memorized, but he didn't know the Word of God. If you know, I was talking before the service started about when Chris was like three years old, he could read. and pronounce all the words properly from an NIV adult Bible. And I remember I was so astonished that he could read that early and so I had him read verses and stuff and he and I and because he read a verse for me I thought well maybe he just memorized that one. But he was reading I'd randomly pick out passages and he'd read the verses and I was kind of puzzled and then I picked a big word and I said what does that word mean? He'd say I don't know. I said what does that other word mean? He said I don't know. I mean, it's like, okay, he's three years old, but he can't preach yet because he can read the Word, but he doesn't understand it. Well, Paul could memorize the Word, but because he was denying Jesus, he didn't understand what the Word was talking about. The main theme of the Bible is Jesus. Everything in the Bible points forward to Calvary, Jesus' death and resurrection. And Paul missed that. So you can, let me tell you, you can turn on television preachers, you can have Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons come to your house. Just because people are quoting scripture doesn't mean that they know the Word of God. You can twist anybody's words, including God's. Okay? Satan would quote scripture. In the Garden of Eden, he'd quote scripture. When he tempted Jesus, he would quote scripture. Always out of context. And then he'd add to God's Word. If you're not paying attention, you don't see that he's adding. And Saul had tremendous zeal for God, what the Marine Corps would call, he was gung-ho. He was sold out for God. Problem was, it was not in accordance with knowledge of God's Word. This is why we have to be grounded in the Word. True spirituality, true Christianity is propositional truth. The truths that we learn from God's Word and also our personal relationship with Jesus. We need both. It's not either or. You try to experience God without biblical doctrine, true biblical teachings, then I don't know what God you're experiencing, but it's not the true God of the Bible. It's probably some demon. Look at how many people worship this demon called Allah. that claims to be God, a cold-blooded, murdering, false God. And the evil that I see in Islam, it just tells me this is not just a false God of their imagination. This is probably a very high-ranking, demonic being. And so you can have a zeal for God, But if it's not accompanied by knowledge of His Word, you're going to be out to lunch there. Now you could also know God's Word and then not apply it. You can know that Jesus is Lord, that Jesus is Savior, and then just choose not to trust in Him for salvation. Do you realize there's going to be millions if not billions of people who will burn in hell forever that have John 316 memorized. you can know, you know, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life you can know that by heart but if you, that's the propositional truth but then you gotta have the personal relationship, then you gotta say well because Jesus is Lord and Savior I will now from my heart trust in him for salvation okay Paul didn't even get to the point of knowing John 3.16 hadn't been written yet, but in the Old Testament, when the Old Testament was pointing to Jesus, he was just saying, no, it's all just technicalities. You know? And Christianity is not a list of rules and regulations. Christianity is a personal love trust relationship with the lawgiver himself. It's a personal relationship with God. Now the rules and regulations, we're not even supposed to be bothered with the letter of the law, it's the spirit of the law. And what is the spirit of the law? It's loving God with everything you got and loving your neighbor as yourself and you will never be able to do that apart from the regeneration and the filling of the Holy Spirit. So you can't do it apart from trusting in Jesus for salvation. Paul knew the words but he just denied what they actually meant. See, the number one hermeneutic principle for understanding the Bible, Old Testament or New Testament, the number one interpretive principle is Jesus. You have to look for Jesus in all the scriptures. You can find him there either directly or indirectly. Remember Philip preaching to the Ethiopian eunuch, he was able to go from Isaiah 53 and teach Jesus. Now that's an easy passage to do it. But to go to an Old Testament sacrifice or an Old Testament feast day and then preach Jesus is a little bit more difficult but it can still be done. To go from a genealogy, why is this genealogy here? You can find out where that fits in God's plan as well. But Paul was very zealous for God, but it was not accompanied by knowledge. He thought of salvation by works rather than salvation by God's grace alone, through faith alone, and Jesus alone. Verse 3, as he journeyed he came near Damascus. This is 140 miles to the north of Jerusalem. And suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you, Lord? Then the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goats. Let's stop there for a minute. Jesus said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? See, Pray for ISIS. Okay, that might sound weird, but pray for ISIS. Because they think they're tough guys. Okay? And there's even a lot of Christians who don't really get it right. These ISIS guys, they're not in deep water. Okay? because they're killing innocent Christians. Okay? Because they're messing with Christians. ISIS is in much deeper water than that. Because they're messing with Jesus. Hear what I'm saying. Okay? These guys think they're tough guys and they're killing defenseless Christians and Jesus said, whatever you do to the least of these, my brethren, that you've done to me. These guys aren't messing with Christians, they're messing with Jesus. Let me tell you something, if you continue to mess with Jesus, some of us right here, we might be messing with Jesus. We might even be believers, and maybe we're still messing with Jesus. We're doing something where Jesus says, don't do it, and we just keep doing it. We're messing with Him. Or we're not doing something that He's calling us to do, and we're messing with Him. Don't mess with Jesus if you mess with Jesus You lose. Period. Okay? Now the wisest thing God ever created is messing with Jesus. His name is Lucifer. And so my message to Lucifer, right from God's word, under the authority of God's word, I will tell you, Lucifer, you lose. You mess with my king, you lose. And pray for ISIS, they got judgment coming. You think what they're doing to those Christians is horrible? Wait till Jesus comes back and they meet, you know, the ultimate Jew. The Lion of the tribe of Judah, face to face, and he says to them, why are you persecuting me? Okay? But then Jesus says, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. And by the way, when you're getting kicked around, when you're getting knocked around by this world for standing up for Jesus, okay? Pray for those who persecute you. If you're going in Jesus' name, when you're getting ridiculed and made fun of and all, they're messing with Jesus. You might think, well, who am I? You're a child of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And if people are stupid enough to mess with you when you're being obedient to Him, They got judgment coming. You ought to pity them. You ought to feel sorry for them. You ought to pray for them. And plead with our Lord to save them. The Word of God is a two-edged sword. One side, it saves, but the other side, it condemns and judges. And, um, um, Jesus said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads. The goads were those little little sticks with points on the end to prod an animal, to get the animal to do what you want them to do. Nowadays we would probably use tasers or something, give little electrical shocks or something like the choke collars that dogs wear. What's that? Cattle prods, yeah, yeah. Well, Jesus is saying, man, I sent Stephen. Stephen preached. What'd you do? Saul, you had him killed. I'm doing all this stuff trying to draw you to myself and you keep fighting it. So let me tell you something. I hope nobody here is kicking against the goats. But the God of the Bible tugs at the strings of the hearts of all people. And not just bringing us, trying to bring us to salvation, but even when we're saved, He always wants closer communion with us, closer fellowship. And some of us are fighting it. Some of us just don't want to give up. As your pastor, I confess to you, there's probably times when I'm fighting it. When God's saying, no, I want you on higher ground. I want you to be more involved in prayer, more involved in Bible study, maybe even more preaching and teaching. And And, you know, it might be, well, no, I want to at least watch one ball game a week or whatever it may be. Let me tell you, don't kick against the goads. Just as, you know, don't mess with God's people, you're messing with Jesus. Don't mess with Jesus by kicking against the goads. When God, when the Spirit of God is pulling you and calling you to be all that He called you to be, go with it. Go with it. And too often we spend our decades of our life with Jesus just playing tug-of-war with Him the whole way. And just give. He's God. Just surrender to Him and let Him do His work in your life. Verse 6, "...so he trembling and astonished..." This is Saul. This is tough guy Saul, and now he's trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what do you want me to do? And he's converted. He's now working for Jesus, not against Jesus. Then the Lord said to him, and rise and go into the city, that's Damascus, where he was supposed to be going there to kill Christians, and you will be told what you must do. And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no one. Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened, he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank. He's got three days now to rethink. to allow the Spirit of God to renew his mind and to rethink how he's been misinterpreting the Old Testament. It's kind of like, the Old Testament, I didn't see Jesus there at all. Now, since Jesus is God incarnate, God become a man, and the Savior of mankind, the Jewish Messiah, what does that mean? Oh, ouch. Everything changes. Everything changes. And he heard some good preaching. He was there holding the coats when Stephen was preaching. Stephen was saying, you don't need the animal sacrifices anymore. You don't need the temple service. The real temple has come. The Lord Jesus Christ, God become a man, God in the flesh has visited us. He is our sacrifice. He has conquered death for us. He took our punishment for us. And so now he's got time alone with God where he's got three days where he neither eats nor drinks and is just pondering these things. versus uh... now and I think some points I made last week if there's room in heaven for Saul he was like you know he was kind of the local Osama Bin Laden of his day as far as the Christians were concerned now he didn't kill children but men and women godly Christians he would bring them for trial and approve of uh... of executing them if there's room in heaven for Saul There's room in heaven for you. I met lots of nice people who believe that what they did Jesus can't forgive. Let me tell you something, you're kicking against the goats. Because Jesus is so ultimately worthy that substitute sacrifice can cover any sin. The only sin that Jesus cannot forgive is living in willful rejection of Him till the day you die. Okay? Some make a final hard denial of Him in this life, and it's called blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. If you desire God's forgiveness, and you love God's Word, and you want to be saved by Jesus, you have Him blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Okay? There's still hope for you. But if there's room in heaven for Saul, there's room in heaven for you. Okay? Jesus provided a place for you. Now, not everybody's going to accept that offer. Okay? If we think of heaven as a big hotel, there's going to be a lot of empty rooms. There's an awful lot of people that don't want Jesus. And Now, when Jesus came to earth, we had no room for Jesus. When he came, yet he always has room for us. So keep that in mind. Okay, now in Saul's physical blindness, Jesus showed him, in his physical blindness, Jesus showed him his spiritual blindness. By the way, Saul was a tough guy. He was mentally sharp, had an IQ off the charts. He brought his muscle with him, probably temple guard. And these guys would arrest the Christians and stuff. So here he's a tough guy and now he's reduced to three days of blindness and he can't even eat and drink. Okay? Let me tell you, God There's an expression, and I'm going to butcher it, but God whispers to us in our strength. He whispers to us in our comfort, but he screams. to us. He speaks loudly to us in our suffering, in our weakness. Okay? We don't have time to look there, but in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, 7 to 10, Saul had a thorn in his side. It might have been the false teachers who were messing with him, it might have been a physical ailment, but three times he prayed that God would take it from him, but God said, no, my grace is sufficient for thee, and in your weakness I am made strong. It's when we are poor, it's when we suffer, it's when we are unhealthy, it's when we are weak that we are able to see God's greatness more clearly. Okay? And sometimes that guy that's got the thriving business and has got everything going for him, sometimes he needs the business to collapse. He needs everything, his whole life to come apart at the seams before he'll see his need for Jesus. God cries out to us loudly in our suffering and in our pain and in our weakness, and that's what he's doing with Saul here. Now, in verses 10 to 19, We see that God commands Ananias to heal and to baptize Saul. Now, there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias, and to him the Lord said in a vision, Ananias, and he said, here I am, Lord. When God calls you, are you ready to be used of him? Or maybe God called you yesterday and said, you know what? I want you to witness to this guy. And you had to say, you know what, Lord? You know I'm not ready for that. Give me two months. Okay? When God calls you, are you ready to be used? I remember, I thought God put it on my heart to go door to door in my neighborhood and invite people to church. And I was like, oh, you know, it didn't even bother me. Most people are going to slam the door in my face. You know, that doesn't bother me. Rejection doesn't bother me that much. But I'm just too lazy to do it. And I just put it off for three or four days. So then there's a knocking on the door. I open the door, and it's Pastor Paul Eckley, who now pastors Sunshine Baptist Church. He was renting the little Grange Hall in my area. And so he was going door to door in my neighborhood. And the Lord showed me. He said, look, Friends, if you're not going to do what I called you to do, I'll get somebody else. I'll get Paul Eckley to do it, your buddy. And so, you know, when God calls you to do something, be ready. Saul wasn't ready spiritually. Physically, I think he was ready to throw down with Goliath. Spiritually, he wasn't ready. And God said, fine, I'll give the blessing to a little shepherd boy. He's going to be the next king of Israel, and he's going to kill a blaspheming giant on that day. But Ananias, when the Lord called him, he said, here I am, Lord. So the Lord said to him, arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus. Saul was originally from Tarsus. It was a city that had a large library. You could be trained there. The Jews could be trained in Greek philosophy and Greek rhetoric and debate as well as synagogues where you could be trained in the Old Testament scripture. So Saul was the perfect man. to be the leading theologian of the early church. And he says that, go to the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying. You can imagine, that's like the biggest understatement in the Bible. I mean, Saul, he just got his whole world rocked. He was a rising star in the Jewish community. He was going to be, you know, Gamaliel's successor. Everything was just, you know, he was chasing the Jewish dream like pastors in America chase the American dream. He was a rock star and now everything has been shattered. So he's not eating, he's not drinking, he's not seeing, but he's praying. He's like, oh Lord, I am sorry. You know, and then he's thinking, all these people that I've killed, they were good people. They were your people, Jesus. And I killed him. So you bet he was praying. And hey, you know what? Let's be honest. A lot of people go, you know, we'll pray like, you know, before we eat our meals and this and that. But most of us aren't the prayer warriors that God has called us to be. But man, we get good at prayer when our lives fall apart. When things are totally out of our control and we don't know what to do. Man, we pray like the Old Testament saints and the New Testament saints. We cry out to God. We always say, Lord, how come you allow bad things to happen to me? He's like, well, that's the only time I get your attention. That's the only time I get some real fervent prayer from you and some real communication with you. And so Saul was praying and then the Lord said, in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias. So God gave Saul a vision of Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him so that he might receive his sight. Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many about this man and how much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on your name. So Ananias is saying, okay, I love you, Lord. I want to serve you. But I just want to make sure you know You understand, this guy came here to kill Christians like me. This guy came here to kill my buddies, to kill your people. Are you really sure you want me to heal him? You know, he's got authority from the priest to come here and to kill me. Verse 15, But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before Gentiles. Later on in the scriptures, he's called the Apostle to the Gentiles. Whereas the other, you know, you got 11 apostles, because Judas betrayed Christ, and then Mattathias took his place. So now you got 12 apostles to the Jews, one tiny fraction of the world's population, and then you got one guy, the Apostle to the Gentiles. But the Lord said, he's my chosen vessel, and it's like Ananias is thinking, chosen vessel? He's public enemy number one! He's a cold-blooded murderer! God say, he's my chosen vessel to bear my name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel, for I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake. I even wonder if he just threw that in to comfort Ananias. And Ananias said, man, this guy is a lowlife. He's a bad dude and you want me to heal him? And then the Lord is saying, look, I've chosen him, he's going to be my apostle to the Gentiles, but he's going to suffer a lot. for the cause of the gospel. You know, maybe that gave Ananias a little bit of comfort that Saul's gonna suffer greatly. Verse 17, Ananias went his way and entered the house. By the way, replace Ananias' name with your name. How would you have responded? You know, what if the Lord, when bin Laden was alive, what if the Lord had shown up to me in a vision and said, okay, Phil, I want you to share your faith, share the gospel with Osama bin Laden, and he's going to come to Christ. You know, what I have said, okay, you get somebody else. I just don't. I don't even want to witness to the guy. You know? I mean Jonah was like that. Go to Nineveh? To Gentiles? To our enemies? And preach to them? Forget about it. I'll go 2,000 miles in the opposite direction. I don't want to go up there. And God had to get his attention. But look at Ananias. You know? Let's face it, brothers and sisters, we tell Jesus, you know, I will serve you, I will do this, I will do that. You know, I've had guys trying to help me in the ministry. I just want to serve God. Whatever help you need, you know, and then I'll say, okay, well I need this kind of administrative type stuff done. Oh, I don't feel like doing that. I need this other kind. I don't feel like doing that. And I find the only thing the guy wants to do is get behind a pulpit and preach. No, we can't be selective. We got to obey the Lord even when he asks us or commands us to do things that make us feel uncomfortable. Okay? You know, we say, well, I want to serve in the kingdom of God. Well, guess what? In a kingdom, there's only room for one king. You're not Him. I'm not Him. He is Him. Jesus is the King of His Kingdom. And He told Ananias, go do something that Ananias didn't feel like doing. And look at what Ananias did. And Ananias went his way and entered the house, and laying his hands on Him, he said, Brother Saul, The Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road as you came has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit." He obeyed. Ananias forgave and obeyed. Let me tell you, you know, this is You know, you might be saying, well this is man, this is like the book of Acts, this is big time stuff, I mean I'm just a little Christian in a different time and all, but I will tell you, okay, and hear me out on this, I will tell you, and this is very important that you remember it, I don't care who you are. You may not be Ananias who's being asked to forgive Saul and obey God by healing him, but I will tell you this, God calls every single believer to forgive and obey. Forgive others and obey God. We do not have an option. You know, we all think about the Our Father, but we don't read the verses after the Our Father in Matthew 6. Let me finish this here, and then we'll look at Matthew 6. He heals Saul, and Saul is filled with the Holy Spirit. Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once, and he arose and was baptized. So when he had received food, he was strengthened. Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus." Okay, take a look at Matthew 6. Matthew 6, we all know the pattern for prayer, the Our Father, and then right after it, the two verses that follow it, Matthew 6, 14 and 15, it says this, If you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." Okay? Now, let me say something here. The Bible... Jesus is not saying... If you want to get to heaven, you have to save yourself by forgiving others. No, the Bible is very clear. We're not saved by works. That's what Paul learned on the road to Damascus. We're not saved by obeying the law. We're saved by God's grace alone. It's God's charity through faith alone in Jesus alone. We trust in Jesus to save us. But what Jesus is saying, if you truly do belong to Him, if you truly are saved, your life will be characterized by forgiving others. By the way, there's quite a few different things that will characterize your life. Another one is confessing or acknowledging Jesus before others. We'll look at that a little later, Matthew 10, 32 and 33. But let me tell you, God asked Ananias to forgive Saul, this guy who was going out murdering Christians, and to obey the Lord, but the fact of the matter is you don't have to be Ananias to forgive and obey. God calls all believers to forgive and obey. Let me tell you, if there's somebody you haven't forgiven, You need to pray about that today and tomorrow and you need to let go, you need to forgive. Let me say this though too, some of the lousiest teaching in the American church today is about forgiveness. There are verses, symbolic verses about God where God, I will forgive them their iniquity and their sins I will remember no more. So I've heard preachers preaching that God doesn't even remember your sins. So if you did something, you ask God for forgiveness, He forgave you, He forgot it. So if you said, Lord, I was so sorry that I did such and such, and God said, I don't even remember it. Well, guess what? That's figurative language. God's omniscient, He's all-knowing. It's impossible for Him to forget anything. So when the Bible says that God forgives us of our iniquities and our sins, He remembers no more? what that basically means is God will treat it he'll treat us as if it never happened he won't hold it against us but that's figurative language because God is all-knowing okay so we think because of this lousy preaching that goes on in the church we think I haven't forgiven somebody unless I've forgotten what they did let me tell you something if you have an enemy that cut off your leg, every, you can forgive the guy, but every morning you wake up and you realize you only got one leg, you're gonna remember. So what that passage means, if you truly forgive, you're no longer gonna hold it against that person's account. Okay? You've canceled the debt. So this idea, there's a lot of Christians who are frustrated, they think that they can't forgive somebody because they can't forget. Okay? Let me tell you, you can choose to forgive somebody, cancel their debt, not hold it against them any longer, but there's a good chance if they really, really hurt you, you're going to remember it. Okay? Ananias remembered the things that Saul did. Saul himself remembered the bad things that he did. But Ananias forgave him, and that's what God calls us to do as well. So Ananias heals and baptizes Saul. Now look at verses 20 to 22 of Acts chapter 9. verses 20 to 22, immediately he preached to Christ, preached Jesus as the Messiah, in the synagogues where the Jews would meet to study the Old Testament, that he is the Son of God. So he's teaching that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, the one that God anointed to rescue the nation of Israel from her enemies, and he'll do that when he returns. and that Jesus is the Son of God, He is God of the Son become a man. Verse 21, Then all who heard were amazed and said, Is this not He who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem and has come here for that purpose so that He might bring them bound to the chief priest? So they're basically saying, I don't believe it. Saul's preaching Jesus in the synagogues. Isn't this the guy that came here to kill us? to kill the Christians and yet he's leading Jews to Christ. He's done a complete reversal by the power of God in his life. This is what repentance is. To turn from your sin and to turn towards God. Metanoia. You know, nowadays when we live in a day and age where homosexuals are told don't turn from your sin, that's the way you are and things of that sort. I was thinking of maybe getting shirts made up of legalized, you know, there's psychologists, there's an organization made up of psychiatrists and psychologists, they're not even, many of them are not Christians, some of them are. but when they get a client a patient who says i want i'm miserable i want out of the homosexual lifestyle all north wants north american The North American Association of Research and Therapy for Homosexuals, all they want is the right to be able to help homosexuals out of the homosexual lifestyle if they want out of the homosexual lifestyle. Do you realize that psychologists and psychiatrists are really not allowed to do that? They're supposed to tell them, no, there's no problem with that, continue to be homosexual, you're feeling bad for other reasons. And so all these guys are saying, look, we want to help these people change and the rest of the psychological community is saying they can't change. And by the way, a portion of these psychologists say the most effective way to help somebody to change from that lifestyle is by coming to salvation through faith in Jesus. Okay? And one of the psychiatrists from North gave me a ride to the airport, me and my wife, when we left Arizona, the conference that I spoke at there. That's why I was thinking of maybe getting a shirt that says, legalize metanoia, which is the Greek word for repentance, and then on the back of the shirt, it's never too late to turn back to God. That's a message that our culture needs to hear. We've got so many people and so many different kinds of sins. No, that's just the way you are. Let me tell you, it's never too late to turn back. to God. Five minutes before Jesus appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus, he didn't think he could change. He thought he was going to do what he was doing until the day he died. But there's always time to repent and to turn back to God. And so the people were shocked in the synagogues. This is the guy who's supposed to persecute us, and he's here preaching Jesus. Verse 22, but Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ. So, you know, this is showing us the power of Jesus to change lives. Let me tell you something. God is not concerned about your past sins. If you've come to Jesus for salvation, God is not concerned about your past sins unless you allow those past sins to continue to influence your present character. Okay? So if God's forgiven you of your past sins of violence, God's not concerned about that anymore if you're no longer violent. But if you allow those past sins to continue to define you and to continue to make you a violent person, then yeah, Jesus is still concerned about that. Okay? So our God is the God of the now. Okay? God wasn't slamming the Apostle Paul over the head time and time again saying, look at all those good people you killed. No, the Lord Jesus forgave him. Now Jesus said, now Saul, don't forget where you came from. Don't forget, don't ever forget what I saved you out of. But when you hear a voice in your head, you're not good enough to preach Jesus' Word because of what you did in the past. Just ignore that and you preach My Word. Saul, I'm the God of the now. I'm the God of the second chance. I'm the God who forgives. I'm the God who transforms lives. You're not the old guy you used to be, Saul. That guy is dead! And now I transformed you. And you are my chosen vessel. And you're the apostle to the Gentiles. You're going to do a lot of preaching among the Jews in the synagogues first. But eventually they're going to beat you up. They're going to kick you out. And you're going to go into the marketplaces. And you're gonna preach the gospel among the Gentiles. Never forget what I saved you out of, but just remember, that's not you anymore, Saul. You're now the Apostle Paul, and preach the Word. Some of you right now, some of you, God's calling you to do something and you're saying, I can't. Because of what I did 20 or 30 years ago. I'm still shocked that God chose me. God called me to preach his word because of my past. But then I look at the Apostle Paul and I was like, man, I got nothing on Paul, man. He's... This dude, there's people who died, godly people, Christians who died because of him. But God's not concerned about your past sins unless they still influence your present character. Never underestimate the power of Jesus to change lives. If He changed Saul's life, He can change your life as well. Paul's message, Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God. He refuted the Jews. in debates. Well, what happened there? So now he's gonna get real popular, right? No. Verses 23 to 25. Now, after many days were passed, the Jews plotted to kill him. Let me tell you, in a world that hates Jesus, if you proclaim Jesus, the world is gonna hate you. Actually, it just comes with the turf. you know this weekend you know at the weightlifting competition and stuff I got to talk to a lot of people about Jesus many of them were believers some of them weren't believers but they were open and uh... uh... it was a good weekend every conversation I had with somebody they probably liked me more after the conversation than they liked me before we started talking but that's the exception rather than a rule general rule is you preach Jesus uh... You get labeled a hater. You get labeled a bad guy. Jesus said, if you find the world hates you, know it has hated me before it hated you. John 15, 18. Now, after many days were passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul, and they watched the gates day and night to kill him. Then the disciples took him by night, and let him down through the wall in a large basket. And so Saul had to escape Damascus. He was rescued by believers. He had preached in Damascus for three years, Galatians chapter 1 tells us. And then Saul goes on to preach in Jerusalem, verses 26 to 29. And when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him. and did not believe that he was a disciple. They thought, oh man, this guy's a secret agent, and he's gonna kill us. I remember when I visited a church, a Christian church in Jerusalem, and me and another American guy, Mark Cutchell, they received us real well, but there was a note on the wall, no photos allowed. And I wanted to take pictures. So I asked the pastor and the pastor said, go ahead, we trust you. But the reason why he had to sign no photos allowed is because they tried to lead Muslims to Christ. So when a Muslim visits their church, they don't know if the Muslim really wants Jesus. or if the Muslim is just trying to pick out the next victims that they're going to kill in a terrorist bombing. And with Saul, they didn't know. The disciples weren't sure. You know, is this guy one of us now or is he really still a bad guy? But Barnabas, that's his nickname, son of encouragement, took him and brought him to the apostles and he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road and that he had spoken to him and now he preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. and so he was with them at jerusalem coming in and going out so basically Because Barnabas spoke up for him, they said, okay, we can trust Saul, we can trust Paul, he's one of us. Verse 29, and he spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Hellenists, that's the Greek-speaking Jews, but they attempted to kill him. When the brethren found out, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him out to Sarsis. They sent him back home. A few things here. First, the disciples, when he went to Jerusalem, the disciples were afraid of him, but Barnabas came to his side, and then he was accepted by the disciples, and then he preached to the Hellenist, Greek-speaking Jews in Jerusalem. Do you realize he's picking up where Stephen left off? Stephen was the one who was preaching to the Greek-speaking Jews in their synagogues. Not the Hebrew-speaking Jews, but the Greek-speaking Jews. And then Saul, who probably taught in those synagogues, had him executed. And now Saul's in Jerusalem picking up where Stephen left off. I remember when I first read about Stephen's death, I thought, Lord, how could you let this guy be killed? He had so much potential, a young man who, he got it before the apostles got it. They were still tied down to the temple and the sacrifice. They didn't quite see our freedom in Christ like Stephen did. How could you let this guy get killed? Who's going to take his place? And the Lord, I think the Lord told me, Saul of Tarsus, the guy who's holding the cloaks, he's going to remember that sermon and he's going to preach and elaborate on that sermon for the rest of his life until he comes to see me face to face when he's executed by the Romans. So Saul picked up where Stephen left off and then Once again, he has to be rescued, and this time he's sent to Tarsus. Now, verse 31, "...then the churches throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria," that's what we call Israel today, had peace and were edified, and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied. Several things happened here. Number one, Saul was no longer persecuting the church, okay? So that gave them a time of peace. But also at this time period, Emperor Tiberius, the Roman emperor from Jesus' day, he died, and now the new emperor Caligula wanted to build a statue of himself in the Jewish temple. Okay? So by him doing this, the attention of the Jewish religious leaders was diverted. They're no longer focused on the believers. Now they're butting heads with the Roman emperor. And so the church grew and served Jesus regardless of whether times were good or bad. And now let me say this. Verse 31 here, maybe, and we're wrapping it up now, but verse 31 here, maybe, the hardest verse in this whole passage to believe. I mean, Saul, the leading persecutor of the church, gets saved? That's pretty tough to believe. That's pretty amazing. Jesus, who had died, appears alive to Saul on the road to Damascus? That's pretty tough to believe. But I'll tell you, verse 31, we just gloss over it, but the church enjoys peace? and grows. Let me say this, only committed mature Christians can spiritually grow during times of comfort and prosperity. Let me repeat that. Only committed, mature Christians can spiritually grow during times of comfort and prosperity. See, normally the church grows when we're persecuted. This is why the church in America is in decline, because we're too comfortable, we're too prosperous. The church in Europe is in decline, in fact it barely has a pulse. because they're comfortable, they're prosperous and then in third world countries Christianity is growing in leaps and bounds where you can still be executed for your faith. I think one of the reasons why America is about to collapse and the American government is now turning on Christians and is saying you're only allowed to be Christians in your homes and in your churches once you go outside you can't obey Jesus and the Bible. You've got to bake cakes for homosexual weddings. You've got to take photographs of homosexuals. Eventually they're going to tell preachers you've got to perform homosexual weddings and churches have to hire homosexual preachers. That's why I think the church is going to have to go underground in the near future. Things are going to get bad here, then we'll grow. Right now the American church is not, we're not mature enough to grow during a time of comfort and prosperity. Most of us need, this is why we need trials, this is why James says, consider it all joy when you encounter various trials. Because the testing of our faith, you know, when we go through a trial and your character is stretched to its limit, to where you can't handle it anymore and you give up, then God says, I got you right where I want you. because now Phil Fernandez can no longer trust in Phil Fernandez he has to trust in me and now I can stretch his character and cause him to spiritually grow You know, with the persecuted church, I had two brothers in the Lord, two persecuted pastors, and they asked me to pray for them, and I prayed that God would remove their suffering, and they stopped me. They had great respect for me, but they stopped me and interrupted my prayer, and they said, no, that's not what we meant. Pray that God gives us the strength to get through these sufferings and trials. We do not want you to pray that God takes these trials from us. Okay? And we too often, we look at things through the eyes of the world and we want everything to go our way. Let me tell you something. If everything went our way, most if not all of us would walk away from Jesus. It's only when things get rough that we cling to Jesus, you know? It's like... When I got to, at Iwana Camp, to witness to these, a Mexican community of lower income housing, and that little boy, Kevin, little boy about five years old maybe, probably weighed 30 pounds soaking wet, he was afraid of everybody, but eventually he took a liking to me. And so whenever somebody new came by and tried to talk to him, he just clung to my leg, okay? We're like Kevin. We're like that little boy, Kevin. We gotta get taken out of our comfort zone before we even think about clinging to Jesus and hugging onto his leg. So if things get bad here in America, if things collapse and you become a crybaby, I'll be crying even louder than you, okay? But our King is gonna bring about growth. We're gonna come closer and closer to our Savior, our God and Savior, the Lord Jesus. A few things I'll leave you with. Number one, forgive others. If you're a true believer, look, the perfect God forgave an imperfect person from you. What right do you have to withhold forgiveness from another imperfect person? Forgive others. Number two, obey Jesus. If Jesus tells you to do something, don't say, well, I'm kind of... I'm not cool with that, Jesus. Give me something else to do. Make Him do that. If Jesus tells you to heal and baptize a persecutor of the church, you obey Jesus. Forgive others, obey Jesus, share Jesus. You know? In fact, let me close with this. Matthew 10, 32. We said that a true believer, a true believer's life will be characterized by forgiving others, but a true believer's life will also be characterized by preaching Jesus. And some of you don't preach with words. Vince is a real quiet guy. He shares Jesus usually just by being kind to others. And I'm a loud mouth, so I talk about Jesus all the time. But look at it in Matthew 10, 32, 33. Therefore, whoever confesses, Jesus is speaking, whoever confesses me before men, him I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven. A true believer, their lives are characterized by bearing the fruit of the Spirit, by loving the brethren, by loving God with everything they got, loving their neighbor as themselves, by forgiving others, and by sharing Jesus with others. When Paul got saved, he immediately began to share Jesus with others. And then, are you willing to suffer for Jesus? Galatians 1.10, Paul says, Do I try to please men? If I wanted to please men, I wouldn't be trying to please Jesus. What he's basically saying, you gotta choose. Sometimes when you're pleasing Jesus, it will please men. Like I think when I preach the word, you people are pleased. Because you love Jesus too. But God also calls me to preach Jesus to people who don't want to hear it. It can make you really uncomfortable. But the fact of the matter, Phil Francis has to decide, I'm either here to please men, or to please God. Do I live to hear the applause of man, or do I live to hear the applause of my Father in Heaven? And we all decided I want to please God. If the world hates me, if the world kills me, if the world beats me, so be it. And then finally, never underestimate, even in your own life, but also in the lives of others, including your enemies, always remember that God has the ability to transform lives. Let me tell you something. Jesus came. He died. He rose. He conquered. So Jesus saves. But Jesus doesn't just save. He also transforms lives. He can make that radical change in the Apostle Paul's life. Solitarsis, he can do the same to you, and he can do the same to me. And by the way, a lot of times, you know, I mentioned this before, but we look at it and we say, well, you know, this is the book of Acts. This is not the boring time in which we live. Let me tell you something, we don't live in a boring time. We're going to see the Book of Acts type of power encounters and miraculous things going on and the demonic realm doing miraculous things, the realm of God doing miraculous things as we get closer to the second coming of Christ. And so as Jesus transformed the life of the Apostle Paul, he wants to transform our lives. And maybe some of us will be... Mother Teresa once said, I'm not a big Mother Teresa fan. I mean, she fed the hungry, but her theology was way out there. But she once said, not all of us can do great things, but all of us can do little things with great love. Okay, so let's at least do little things with great love at the same time recognizing where we are in the prophetic time clock. There might be another solitarsis in this room right now. So what you're gonna have to face is not how big is our problem. In the United States of America, our problems are really, really big. It's not how big is your problem, how big is your God. My God is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. He is the God who sits in throne. He's the God of Peter and Paul and John. He's the God who's in control. He's the King of Kings and a Lord of Lords. And that day, and it may be coming close, that day will come when His Son, the Lord Jesus, our great God and Savior, will take His stand upon the earth. Allow God to transform your life. He's not going to be able to transform your life if you refuse to forgive. If you refuse to obey, if you refuse to share Jesus, you allow God to work through your life, God can transform you. Because God wants to do powerful things through each and every one of us here as we build His kingdom through the power of the Holy Spirit until that day when King Jesus comes back to take what is rightfully His. Let's close with a word of prayer. Our king is still on the throne.