The Great Reversal – Acts 9 : 1-19

The following is a lightly edited transcript and may contain errors.

Contents

Conversion Is a Great Reversal
Walking Through the Story
The Hunter Becomes the Hunted
“Who Are You, Lord?”
An Actual Encounter with Jesus
The Divine Encounter
The Human Surrender
The Limitless Possibility
Closing Prayer

Morning, Liberty. I hope you had a wonderful Easter. Glad to see you all back. As you can see, both our elders are not here today. They are ministering in Belize. I think Mike is preaching right now, and Justus is leading worship. I think he told me, at two other locations. So that’s really exciting, isn’t it? Today you’re stuck with me. All right. Well, I am going to camp out this morning in Acts chapter 9. And I forgot, I don’t usually do this. I don’t have much announcements this morning, but the kids are free to go to their classes. All right, Acts chapter 9, starting in verse 1. I’m going to read the first nine verses.

But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were open, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank. (Acts 9:1–9)

Let’s pray.

Dear heavenly Father, as we look to your word this morning, I pray that you will speak. I pray that we would have ears to hear. Lord, I pray that you would get me out of the way, that people will hear your voice. Lord, I also lift up our elders who are in Belize. I pray that they would have good ministry there in Belize, that it will be fruitful. I heard that Pastor Justus preached the gospel to over 200 people yesterday. I pray that that would be fruitful. I pray that Mike’s sermon today would be fruitful. And I pray for Deacon Smith, who’s there as well. They celebrate the life of Elder Smith there in Belize, whom we miss very much. Lord, be with us, remove distractions, and let us hear from you this morning. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Conversion Is a Great Reversal

Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician, philosopher, physicist, testified that for two hours it seemed as time itself stood still while he was lost in the euphoria of the experience. Charles Spurgeon, he said that he’d dance all the way home when it happened to him. What was your experience of conversion? Was it like anything like these conversions? Exhilarating, euphoric, ecstatic. Conversion to Christianity can be, but not necessarily so. John Wesley, for example, tells of the occasion when, as he was hearing a sermon on the Book [audio unclear] strong and healthy Christian families, it seems for those as if they almost slide naturally into a relationship with Jesus, in many cases with hardly any emotional upheaval at all. I pray that for our children here in this church, that they’re converted that way. It is so beautiful being brought up in a Christian home, to know Jesus and who he is their whole life.

It reminds us, you see, that the experience of emotional euphoria is not the authentication of true conversion. But nor is the absence of it the indication of a conversion that is less than genuine. Conversion is not, at its essence, this particular kind of religious feeling. Conversion, stated most simply, is a turning around. It’s a change of direction, so that you can tell whether somebody has been truly converted not by the account of what did or didn’t happen at the point of their turning, but by the moral and spiritual reversal that has demonstrated itself in their life. And that, my friends, is now set before us here in what may be the most famous conversion account in the entire Bible: the conversion to Christianity of Saul of Tarsus. The event, I have heard one theologian cite, he says it is the most important event in human history, apart from the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. You see, without the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, there would be no New Testament as we presently have it, and much of what defines the very heart and soul of Christianity would be lost to us. Things like our glorious union with Christ. The life-changing reality of justification by faith alone, by grace alone. The death and resurrection of Jesus as the clearest explanation of the Christian life. Do you realize, my friends, that without the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, there would have been no Augustine, no Luther, no Wesley? These are game-changing men of Western civilization, for the simple reason that without Saul, Christianity would have remained an obscurity within Judaism, confined to the borders of Palestine. And yet, at the time of his death, Saul’s death, thirty years following the death of Jesus Christ, Christianity becomes a world force. He is Saul of Tarsus, the greatest gospel missionary the Christian movement has ever known.

But how in the world does this happen? How does it happen? How does Christianity’s most ardent antagonist become her most ardent advocate? It is by the means of the great reversal, the experience of conversion. Saul’s conversion, of which you can be certain, not because of the heavenly light that envelops him so spectacularly, not because of the supernatural voice that speaks to him authoritatively, but because of the profound reversal in his life that displays itself undeniably. In this respect, we need to look at his conversion as a model for all Christian conversion. But before we get there, with some very specific application, I think it will prove very helpful this morning, and I hope most powerful, to just walk you through the story. So let’s walk through this story, okay?

Walking Through the Story

Let’s pick it up. Acts chapter 9, verse 1. I said we were going to camp out there, so we are. It begins, “But”—some translations say “then,” other translations say “meanwhile.” That is over and against the life-giving ministry of Philip the evangelist. If you remember, last time I was here—it’s been a while, at least preached here at Liberty. Actually, in case there’s a trivia about it, I was the last person to preach at the end of 2024. But I preached about Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter 8, the end of 8. So at the beginning of chapter 8, though, Saul was overseeing the great persecution against the church in Jerusalem. And now we’re in 9, and “meanwhile,” or “but Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of our Lord.” “Saul was still.” What does that imply? “Saul was still” implies that he’s still working on his project. It implies the continuation of something that has extended beyond the expected point. Look back, chapter 8, verse 1. Remember?

And Saul approved of his execution. (Acts 8:1)

That is the stoning of Stephen. He was there for the execution, and it is the spark that sets ablaze the fire that follows. Verse 3 of chapter 8:

But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. (Acts 8:3)

But how does all of this violence appease his hostility, his systematic efforts to destroy the Christian community in Jerusalem? It doesn’t. He’s convinced that his calling is to something much more grandiose: a righteous crusade to ensure the purity of Judaism, to liquidate every lingering vestige. Saul has inhaled the murder of Stephen and others, and now he’s seeking to exhale more of the same on all Christians. In other words, the initial taste has become an insatiable lust, so that only more blood will satisfy his obsessional hatred. And now an opportunity has presented itself. Given the dispersion of Christians that resulted from this persecution that Saul himself spearheaded in Jerusalem, word has worked its way back to him that there may be Christians hiding out in Damascus, about 150 miles away. And now he goes to the high priest, that is Caiaphas, and he asks him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus. Now, why the synagogues? Because they were most likely the most likely locations these Jewish Christians would seek shelter. But what are these letters that Saul acquires from the high priest? Well, see if you can figure it out—that is, what they are by virtue of why he seeks them. In the second half of verse 2 of Acts 9, it says, “so that if he found any belonging to the Way”—that was the name given to the followers of Christ, the Way—“men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.” These letters are extradition documents, arrest warrants, authorizing him to return these Christians to Jerusalem in chains, to stand trial before the Jewish Supreme Court, with the hope that the outcome would be something similar to that experienced by Stephen. Men or women makes absolutely no difference at all. Simply stated, church, it is a search-and-destroy operation. Saul has been commissioned by the highest authority in Judaism to hunt Christians.

Do you recall the verse—they might call it, I think, a couplet—in Jack and the Beanstalk? “Fee, fi, fo, fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he alive, or be he dead, I’ll grind his bones to make my bread.” In the Aramaic? It’s the tune Paul’s singing right here on his road to Damascus.

The Hunter Becomes the Hunted

Yet all the while, completely unaware, as the righteous hunter of Christians, he himself has become the hunted. The pursuer has become the prey. You say, what do you mean? Verse 3: “as he went on his way, he approached Damascus.” Heart racing, I would imagine. Mouth salivating. One step closer to his righteous aim, stamping out Christianity once and for all. Suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. Now, if you’ve seen the film clips, no doubt, of people standing in bomb shelters, inside the bomb shelters—you’ve probably seen them. They’re from like the 50s or something. They’re standing inside a bomb shelter, miles and miles away from ground zero, wearing these protective goggles—I’m not sure what they protected them from. But they’re wearing them, looking out of windows, only to experience the instantaneous flash of light from an explosion that immediately devours everything in blinding light. It’s very near to what Saul experiences right here. In fact, just to enhance this just a bit more for you, to appreciate something of the magnificence, we know from Saul’s own testimony later in Acts chapter 22 that this occurs about noon, which makes this all the more staggering, my friends. How brilliant must this light have been to overpower the light of the sun at midday?

It’s kind of like comparing, as I was thinking about this, shades of white. You start with seashell white. And then you move to floral white, and from floral white you move to snow white, and from snow white you move to baby powder white, and then to ghost white, and finally you get to pure white. And if you’re like me at first, you think, white’s white, what’s the difference? Until you see them next to each other. When you play seashell white alongside pure white, seashell white doesn’t even look white anymore. It almost looks gray. This light here doesn’t make the sun look gray. It makes the sun disappear. It’s lost in this infinitely greater light. And for Saul, when he comes to his senses and realizes that he’s collapsed, he is now a quivering mess lying on the ground. The audio is turned on to interpret the video. Verse 4: “and falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul.’” Now, you need to understand here, church. You need to keep in mind, and you can’t lose sight of the fact, that Saul is an Old Testament fanatic. He knows the Old Testament like the back of his hand. He knows it. He’s steeped deeply into the language and the stories of the Old Testament Scripture. So what he does, even as he’s been completely undone by this light, is that this is exactly what happens when God shows up. People don’t bask in the soothing, warm comfort of his presence. They collapse in trauma at his glory. Ask Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. What’s more, when God wanted to stress the seriousness of the event, the significance of what he was about to say, he addressed such people, which often began by doubling the use of a name. “Abraham, Abraham.” “Jacob, Jacob.” At the burning bush, “Moses, Moses.” Now you can see, church, all of this is running through Saul’s mind as the dots connect instantly, involuntarily, basically. He understands.

“Who Are You, Lord?”

[audio unclear] “I’m not persecuting God. To the contrary, I’m proving my commitment to God by persecuting his enemies. But if those I’m persecuting are not God’s enemies, and that somehow in persecuting them, I’m really persecuting him, then do I even really know who he is?” He can barely bring himself to ask the question in verse 5: “Who are you, Lord?” Then who are you?

Politicians, social commentators, historians, the news media—it’s not uncommon for them to make reference to the Judeo-Christian God. We hear it all the time. And by this, I expect that they mean to imply that Jews and Christians worship the same God. Are they right? They are right in one sense, but they are profoundly wrong in another. They are right if by this they mean that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are the same God. But they are woefully wrong if by this they mean the God of contemporary Judaism and the God of Christianity are the same God. You see, my friends, as the Bible itself progressively unfolds, what do we discover? That the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has now explained himself most fully as the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. [audio unclear] rejecting the man Jesus, Saul has forsaken the God of the Old Testament. And he’s now created a deity of his own making. A God emptied of God. An idol which unthinkably then makes Saul little more than a pagan. It’s why now, church, it’s impossible to overestimate the shock of the next three words, spoken, I would remind you, in the overpowering splendidness of divine glory: “I am Jesus.” It can’t be. [audio unclear] in his crucifixion on the cross. The crucifixion was a fact that Saul knew to be true. He knew that to be true. This Jesus has been vindicated by God in the most glorious way, raised from the dead, exalted into heaven, and as the Lord of all, and he is then granted a glory exclusive to God—the fact that Saul believed to be impossible until now. So what’s going through his mind? But if this man Jesus—Jesus—[audio unclear]

This, church, is the beginning of the great reversal. The great reversal that must take place in the life of every Christian. Now, let’s talk about, real quickly, there are uniquenesses here, right? Given that Saul sees the resurrected Lord and that he hears the resurrected Lord. I have never seen the resurrected Lord, and I have never heard audibly the resurrected Lord. These are phenomena not so much associated with his conversion. They are here to establish the commission of Saul as an apostle. And that’s a whole other sermon. Nevertheless, the essence of his experience is what must always happen if a person is to be authentically converted. There must be an actual encounter with Jesus Christ.

An Actual Encounter with Jesus

Let me press into this story just a bit more. “The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one.” These men, they’re temporarily incapacitated in terms of speaking. Incapacitated, friends, by what I believe to be fright. I mean, who would not be scared with this situation? Why? They heard the sound but did not see anyone. Notice, look at that little last clause there at the end of verse 7: “but seeing no one.” It does not say that they did not see anything, because according to Paul’s testimony in Acts 22, they did see something. They saw that light, though they didn’t see Jesus, and they heard the sound, but were unable to discern the specific words. So what am I trying to get at? I’m trying to make a point here. That something objective did happen, to which there were third-party witnesses. And yet at the very same time, the revelatory element in it was intensely personal: an encounter solely between Jesus and Saul. It is, church, the experience that affects conversion: the objective act of God in a person’s life, an actual encounter with Jesus that is uniquely personal. And by the way, it will confuse family members. It will confuse friends and even bystanders who find it difficult to comprehend what has just happened to the recipient of this conversion. These guys here, these traveling companions, in all probability temple police, to help Paul—Saul—bring back these Christian renegades to Jerusalem, they are positively clueless, and most probably again in fear.

Verse 8: “Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing.” Why? Why did he see nothing? Well, there are some theologians who have suggested that this here is an expression of punishment, of some kind of divine displeasure, which I find very hard to believe, given that Jesus has endured his punishment on the cross, and given that everything about this scene is a beautiful and wonderful display of God’s sovereign grace. So I would suggest to you that this is an acted-out parable. That it is shown to show Saul his own spiritual bankruptcy. In other words, he who thought he could see so clearly, better than anyone else, was in fact so obviously blind. And now, being forced to recognize his own blindness, is beginning to see. And verse 8: “So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.” Verse 9: [audio unclear] a helpless child, pathetically dependent, at the mercy of someone else. And for these same three days, Luke tells us, Saul neither ate nor drank. So why is Saul not eating? An ophthalmologist that I’ve read has suggested that Saul couldn’t eat. Just as an [audio unclear] In verse 19, he immediately eats and regains his strength. Verse 19. Or maybe Saul is fasting, going without food so that he can pray and repent, particularly now that he replays his entire life in light of the fact that so much of what he proudly accomplished in the name of serving God has just been revealed to be the most heinous of sins, and thus the undeniable justification for his eternal condemnation. Is it that Saul can’t eat, or that he won’t eat? Who’s to say it can’t be both? Given that he’s baptized in verse 18, there’s every reason to assume that Saul is repenting, confessing, and most especially reorienting his mind with regard to who God is and who Jesus is.

Now, let me ask you the question that I asked at the beginning. How does Christianity’s most aggressive antagonist become her most ardent advocate? I said, by the means of the great reversal, the experience of conversion. And from this, church, I would like to draw your attention now to two features that always characterize authentic conversion. Two features that always characterize authentic conversion. I don’t believe that there is an exception to this anytime, anywhere. Two features that always characterize authentic conversion. And then I’ll add a little P.S. at the end. All right?

The Divine Encounter

The first feature. We can refer to it as simply the divine encounter. The divine encounter. Conversion is not just the acceptance of a set of theological presuppositions or four spiritual laws. I would remind you, my friends, that Saul knew a great deal about Jesus before his experience. He knew he was from Nazareth. He knew [audio unclear] the resurrected Christ. That’s a lot of data, isn’t it? And he probably knows way more than that. But conversion, you see, is not the consequence of a cerebral digestion of accurate data. It is the consequence of a real and actual encounter with the risen and exalted Christ. You meet Jesus. He comes to you. He calls you into a relationship with himself, so that you know that he’s doing so. Now, it may come to you via a conversation with maybe a colleague at work, or maybe your mom or dad, or in the process of reading your Bible, listening to a sermon. But you are met with the objective data of the gospel story that then, perhaps quite unexpectedly, suddenly becomes intensely personal and invasive. And you know that Jesus is calling you, naming you, reaching out to you, dealing directly with you, as if everyone else around you, even if there’s thousands, as if they’ve all just disappeared. This is the experience. “I call you by name. John, John, why are you running from me? Mike, Mike, why are you rejecting me? David, David, why are you defying me?”

I want to tell you something, friends. You may have been in church your entire life. Been there for catechism. Been there for [audio unclear]. Been to church camp. Maybe Awana, if your church has had that. Christian conferences, mission trips. Believing yourself now to be moral to the core, baptized and confirmed, with all the paperwork to show for it. But if you have not experienced a personal encounter with the living Savior, if you have not entered into a one-on-one relationship with Jesus Christ, then with all due respect, my friends, you have not been converted.

In fact, very much related to this is the fact that the invitation to conversion always rests on his side of the relationship. I mean, we just read it. You read it with me. Was Saul somehow secretly hoping to become a Christian? Was he looking for eternal life in Jesus Christ? Had he decided to get himself converted? No, Saul didn’t decide for Christ. He was persecuting Christ. It was Christ who decided for Saul. It was like a cat chasing a mouse, or a pack of hounds closing in on a fox. Like a divine chess player maneuvering somebody into the most disadvantageous positions, until finally, in the end, he concedes. Checkmate. The hunter was the hunted one. You understand, church? Conversion is an act of divine illumination as sovereign and unilateral as creation itself. Saul himself says this very thing. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 6:

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6)

The first feature of all authentic conversions: Jesus comes to you. It’s a verse that gets stripped out of its context, but the imagery works: he comes knocking. “I want you. Come to me.” And you know it. The divine encounter. An actual personal encounter with a living, resurrected, exalted Christ.

The Human Surrender

The second feature of all authentic conversions: the human surrender. The human surrender. No one has ever converted apart from the human surrender. Here in the text, as displayed by what? Certainly Saul’s acknowledgement of the person as Kyrios, as Kyrios, Lord. Notice verse 5: “Who are you, Lord?” The Greek word for Lord here is Kyrios. Now I understand on occasion this term Kyrios can just be a respectful “sir.” But in this context, this extraordinary supernatural experience, I guarantee you, Saul is expressing much more than formal politeness. He knows exactly who this is. This is the God that Moses saw on Mount Sinai. This is the God that Isaiah saw in the temple. This is the God that Ezekiel saw in his vision of heaven’s throne room. And here, Saul is brought to the momentous realization that this God has a new and unexpected name: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” And we know, friends, that Saul embraces this not only because he’s baptized, but because he immediately responds in obedience to the command of the glorified Christ. Verse 6: “But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” Verse 8: “Saul rose from the ground.” And at the end of verse 8: “so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.” In other words, he becomes the servant of Jesus Christ. He does what he says. And this, you see, my friends, is exactly what conversion to Jesus is. You don’t merely pay him your compliments. You offer him your life. Conversion to Christianity is not primarily a decision or a commitment. It is a surrender to the supreme authority of Jesus.

But what about those exhilarating experiences of joy that are supposed to accompany conversion? I think we’ve all heard that that’s supposed to happen. What about those experiences of ecstatic joy that we often talk about? I mean, in light of that, can this here really be an authentic conversion? And my response is, what does his life tell you? It tells you that the great reversal has occurred. Christianity’s most aggressive antagonist has become her most ardent advocate. So what does your life tell you? Have you really and truly been converted? Have you met Jesus personally? Do you know him meaningfully as your very best friend and most intimate friend? Have you experienced the divine encounter with Jesus Christ? And in response, has your life expressed the human surrender to Jesus Christ? You see, my friends, that’s a whole lot different than asking, are you religious? Are you churchy? Are you conservative? Are you moral? The pre-converted Saul of Tarsus was all of those. I say, but David, I’m not the particularly emotional type, you know? It’s hard for me to envision myself bubbling over and being giddy with joy. Certainly nothing like some of my Christian friends who have described their conversion. And I would ask you, having looked at these nine verses, is there the slightest hint of exhilaration? Nor was there, for that matter, on the day when C. S. Lewis was converted. Listen to his own explanation.

You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalene, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing: the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape? The words “compel them to come in” have been so abused by wicked men that we shudder at them; but, properly understood, they plumb the depth of the Divine mercy. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.

The Limitless Possibility

The divine encounter. The human surrender. Two indispensable features of authentic conversion. The great reversal. A question for you this morning. Have you experienced it? The great reversal? It may be that the divine encounter is occurring right now. That Jesus Christ is calling out to you and seeks from you the acknowledgement of who he is, the Lord of glory. The divine encounter, the human surrender, and now lastly, very quickly, a brief P.S. I can’t help but mention it because it fills me with such hope. Who in their right mind would have ever regarded Saul of Tarsus as a potential convert? This, church, is why we must be generous with this gospel. It’s why we must be liberal with this gospel, open-handed with this gospel. It’s why, my friends, you can never allow yourself to think, he’ll never be a Christian. She’ll never embrace the Lord Jesus Christ. If Jesus can save Saul, Jesus can save anybody. And if Jesus can save anybody, then Jesus can save you. In fact, Saul himself says this very thing. 1 Timothy 1:15:

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. (1 Timothy 1:15–16)

So Saul the murderer becomes Paul the apostle. And as a result, his response to it, verse 17, is doxology:

To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. (1 Timothy 1:17)

The divine encounter, the human surrender, and P.S., the limitless possibility. He can save you. The great reversal.

Closing Prayer

Would you bow your heads with me, please? Gracious heavenly Father, we thank you for the great reversal. The change that you made in our hearts, the turnaround so profound that family and friends are often left confused. Who is this person? There are those here this morning that can testify of this fact. There are some of us here this morning, Lord, that can testify of a joyous, ecstatic conversion. And there are those here who grew up in a Christian home. And when asked at what particular time this great reversal happened, when did they start to love Jesus? They answer, when did you start loving your mother? They, as a result of a Christian upbringing, slid naturally into a relationship with you. Still others here this morning, they were like Lewis, reluctant converts. And others this morning, Lord, in whom this profound change had very little to do with the emotions at all, but your great reversal is written all over their new life in you. Finally, Lord, there are some here, even this very morning, who have never experienced the divine encounter and the human surrender. There has as yet been no reversal, no turning to heed your call. For those here like that this morning, we have great hope that you, our Father God, hear our prayers to you, our sovereign and triune God, that you are ready to declare checkmate. Lord, as a church, we pray that we would heed your call to proclaim your gospel and see your work in creating newness of life in one that was once dead in their trespasses and sin. Lord, your great reversal is beautiful. I pray. Amen.

Let’s stand for a second. I would like to sing the [audio unclear]. Please help us this week as we go about the work, your work, [audio unclear — recording ends].