You're listening to audio from Faith Church, located on the North Side Of Indianapolis. If you'd like to check out more information about our church and ministry, you can find us at faithchurchindi.com. Now, here's the teaching. It's so good to gather together with you and worship this morning. Thank you for singing and and praying together as the the people of God, the people called of Christ, and, encouraging me, encouraging all of us together.

Well, today, we continue on our journey through, the book of Acts, and we're in the middle of Paul's speech to king Agrippa. Two weeks ago, pastor Jeff, gave us the setting, for this and and showed us how all the all the details were coming together, under the hand of God to bring Paul to this wonderful place of standing before the king, king Agrippa, the king in the land, Bernice and Festus and this crowd of, important citizens of the city. God has orchestrated this and put Paul in front of them with a request. Paul, share with us what you have to say. Now what a wonderful opportunity Paul takes from that.

And then last week, Jeff, took us through the first part of Paul's talk to King Agrippa, where Paul presented his background and went over his, persecution, of the church and then made this point that the reason he was there be was because Christ is risen. And that resurrection of Christ became the hope and the focus of, Paul's life and his service of God. So today, we come to something that's, a little familiar to us here in the book of Acts. We come to the third telling of Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus. Now as I read this, the question came to my mind, perhaps the same question that that comes to your mind.

Why is Luke spending more time, more precious space on his scroll that he's coming to the end? Why is he once again telling us this story of Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus? Well, obviously, like the story of Peter being sent to Cornelius, which is also mentioned three times, this is an important story in the life of the church. And it's also important to realize that each time Luke shares this story, there's little there's differences. There's there's a little difference of emphasis, and there's different details that we receive, and that's quite true with the the version of the story we see in in Acts 26.

Back in Acts chapter nine, when Jesus confronts Paul on the road, to Damascus, there's a very brief statement of the purpose for which Christ confronts Paul. And that statement is simply that Paul is being called as a witness, and Jesus is sending Paul to witness to Israel, to the nations, and to kings. And so here we come to Acts 26, and we see this statement by Jesus to Paul on the road to Damascus coming true because here we see Paul is standing for a king giving testimony to Jesus Christ. In Acts chapter 22, the second telling of Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus occurs. And once again, in that telling, there's just brief mention to why Jesus confronted Paul or Saul on that road to Damascus.

And once once again, there's a simple statement that Ananias gives to Paul, you're you've been called by Christ to be a witness. When we come to Acts chapter 26, we don't hear about Ananias at all. We don't hear about Paul's blindness. Instead, what we get in this version of Paul's con Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus is a very detailed account of why Jesus Christ confronted Paul on the road to Damascus and what Jesus Christ is commissioning Paul to. That becomes pretty important in our understanding of this story, and and hopefully you'll see that in a moment.

How much emphasis is stressed on the fact that Christ himself gave Paul a mission, and Paul was obedient to that mission. Now when you're preparing a sermon, often, there's another question that comes to mind, and that's the so what question. What does this story have to teach us about God? What does it have to teach us about ourself? The Winter Olympics are coming up.

I hate to rush the season. You know, let's enjoy the the warm weather. But this February, the Winter Olympics are are are coming up, once again. And having lived in Minnesota for a decade with its nine months of winter every year, I have an affinity to the Winter Olympics. We're always looking for something to do, during the winter.

And, when I think about the Olympics, I generally think about these incredible events where these skilled and practiced athletes do these awesome things that I could I could never relate to. I think of figure skating. You know, you see these these athletes go out on the ice, and and they glide around gracefully, and they jump in the air and spin around 10 or 20 times. I'm never quite sure who's counting. You know, I can't tell how many times they spun, but then they land gracefully and spin on.

And and as I watch this, there's nothing in me that says, I can relate to that. You know? I I I think I could go out and do that. However, once in a while, there's an Olympic event that I can relate to. Have you ever seen curling?

Now as far as I can tell, curling was something that was come up with, by some Scandinavian folks that were in the middle of a cold, dark winter, and they were looking for something to do. So they looked at the rules for for shuffleboard, and they looked at the rules for bocce ball. And they took a couple bowling balls, and they stuck them in a waffling iron. They kinda smash them down, and they put a handle on it. And they they went out, and, you know, they they created this sport.

Now I'm if you're a big curling fan, I I apologize. But, anyway, when I when I look at a sport like that, I feel like now there's something I can relate to. I feel like I could go out and do a little curling on the back pond with some friends at some point, and and, you know, this is this is something that's doable in my life. Now when we come to this story about the apostle Paul and its conversion on the road to Damascus, I think, generally, we look at this story kinda like the way I look at a figure skating. When I look at this awesome guy, Paul, and what he accomplished in life, all he went through, all that he suffered, all he did for God and lord and the lord Jesus Christ.

You know, my tendency is to say, wow. That's incredible. You know, I really appreciate his skill and commitment, but this has nothing to do with me. But the reality when you read this story is that this isn't a story about some kind of superstar that's living a life that has nothing to do with the kind of life you and I live as people that are called to follow our Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, this story assumes that the experience Paul had on the road to Damascus is similar.

There are parallels to this to this story that each one of us can tell as a follower of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yeah. The circumstances are different. Our our callings are different. Our locations are different.

But at at root, at the bottom of this story, is this foundational notion that Paul met Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus and realized that he was walking in air, he was walking in darkness, he was walking self directed, and he realized when Jesus Christ spoke to him that he was on the right the wrong track, and he made a turn towards the light of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it transformed his life. And that's that's the story for all of us. We found ourselves in need, we found ourselves in darkness, and God called us to the light to our Lord Jesus Christ. It's assumed in this story Paul Paul saw the light of Jesus so that he could share it with others. In in second Corinthians, there's a section where a lot of people have noticed it seems like Paul is reflecting on his own conversion experience, and he's reflecting on how that experience is shared by all believers in the lord Jesus Christ, and he makes this statement.

Everyone who is in Christ has become a new creation. The old is gone. Behold. Look. Wow.

The new has come. This idea of transformation of an individual when they come to the light of lord Jesus Christ is an idea that applies to all of us. Let's dig in and see how this works out. We're in Acts chapter 26, and I'd like to look at this section that Claire read for us in in just two sections. First of all, let's notice the confrontation of Paul by Jesus, and then we'll look at the commissioning and the obedience of Paul, after Jesus confronts him.

So first of all, the confrontation. Acts 26 verse 12. In this connection, I journeyed to Damascus with authority and the commission of the chief priest. At midday, oh king, I saw on the way a light from heaven brighter than the sun that shone around me and those who journeyed with me. And when they had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

It is hard for you to kick against the goads. And I said, who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. When I was a kid, my mom had a Brownie Kodak, Brownie movie cameras, eight millimeter thing, arc archaic. You you wound it up.

It had a spring like an old alarm clock or something. But when you use that camera at night, it required a lot of additional light. And so there was this huge three, four foot long light bar that had four three hundred watt bulbs. And then I remember as a kid, when mom would turn that thing on, you could be three or four or five feet away, and you'd feel feel the heat coming off of it. And mom would take this movie projector to some of our family events.

I remember, in particular, our Christmas Eve gatherings where mom, would gather with her seven siblings and their families and all the grandkids, and we would party on Christmas Eve to the night. And mom would bring out the camera to capture the event. And I still have those films, but, unfortunately, they they don't really show us a whole lot of what our Christmas Eve gatherings were about because the the way it works, as mom would approach a group that was eating or or playing a game or visiting with this camera and light bar, what you see what you would see is not what they were doing, but you would see people looking at the camera holding their face up or just walking away. And and it's probably a good thing we didn't have any audio audio recordings, with that film at this at this point. Now the reason I tell that story is because this is the kind of disruptive light that Paul is talking about or sharing on the road to Damascus.

This isn't a little bit of extra light to see a little more clearly by. This is a light that is described in this account uniquely as a light that is brighter than the noonday sun. This light appears at noon and it outshines the sun. So that's that's pretty impressive. And the point of all this is that when Jesus meets Paul on the road to Damascus, there is a clear disruption.

There's a clear message of God that stops Paul in his tracks, and this isn't just some daydream, something that's going on in the in the mind of Paul but not in reality. This light is so bright that it knocks Paul to the ground but also all those he says, all those traveling with me fell to the ground. So the point is this, this is a real event that has happened in Paul's life, and he's now sharing it with King Agrippa. I met God on the road to Damascus, and the conversation starts. Jesus speaks to Paul.

Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? And then that little unique phrase that it only appears here in Acts 26 as as, pastor Jeff mentioned in cut for time. It's hard for you to kick against the goads. Now I know a little bit about kicking against goads. And when I was a kid, growing up on the farm, we had a cattle prod, that would be, left laying around once in a while.

If you don't know what a cattle prod is, it's it's a long stick. It's got about eight d cell batteries in it. When I was a kid, I'm sure they make a difference now. But I can tell you one thing for sure. That cattle prod got tried out on me, and I can tell you that it is hard to kick against the goads, against the cattle prod.

When you feel that thing, your in your inclination is not, oh, I'm gonna bear into this. You know? I'm gonna to bear into this pointed stick of the farmer, the the the point of the prod is to send you heading in the other direction. And so Jesus shares here this familiar Greek proverb that it's hard to kick against the goad to make the point that that Paul is actually in his activity of persecuting the people of Jesus Christ. He's actually taking on taking on a fight with God.

This is what his teacher Gamaliel warned about in Acts chapter five when he said to the Sanhedrin who was thinking about trying to destroy the Christian community. Gamaliel said, take heed. Let this play out. This could be the work of God. And if it is, you're going to find yourself fighting against God, and that's exactly where Paul finds himself in this road on this road to Damascus.

He's fighting against the God that he thought he was serving. Well, this brings a question to Paul's mind, who are you, Lord? And a lot of commentators that I read suggest that this is a legitimate question. Paul wasn't sure who he was talking to. Paul would have assumed that if God or an angel had talked to him from heaven, he would have been commended for what he was doing.

And here he's being confronted. Why are you persecuting me? And the answer comes back that changed the the world for the apostle Paul. Saul, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. This is that moment where you thought you're driving to Louisville and you look up and the sign says 77 miles to Chicago.

Paul looks up and realize this road I've been on, I thought I was serving God, but I'm on the wrong track. The light of Jesus has has shown on me, and and it this isn't just a little bit of a fact that Paul can now use to get the answers right on the quiz. Who is Messiah? Oh, Messiah is Jesus of Nazareth. Check that one off.

This is a life changing realization for the apostle Paul because he, as a zealous Pharisee, he believed that it was his duty, his calling to violently promote the will of God, the purpose of God in the world. The the hero of this branch of the Pharisees was Phineas, the the son of Aaron. And Phineas was known for taking a spear and going out and killing the Israelite man and the the, Midianite woman that he had brought in into the camp. And this was the hero for these guys. And if you had asked Paul or Saul at this point, what's Messiah going to be like?

Saul would have told you that he's gonna be like Phineas. He's going to come. He's going to rally the faithful of Israel, and he's going to lead us off in a mighty victory over the Romans. And the answer comes back, I am Jesus whom you're persecuting. And all of a sudden, Paul realizes, I've got it all wrong.

If you look at verses twenty two and twenty three, you see that Paul's understanding of scripture here is totally flipped on its head. And he realizes that Jesus didn't come to fight a battle against the Romans. Jesus came for a much higher purpose, and that promise to Abraham back in Genesis chapter 12, that promise that in him and his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed, that promise is coming true in the the person, the Messiah of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul lays it all aside. His whole world is turned upside down, and and then Jesus goes on here with the second part of this commission.

Now I'd like to read, this commission to you and and bring out the beautiful beautiful literary structure that that Paul, gives in this speech and Luke records for us here. So we've seen the confrontation. Now we're going to see Jesus commission Saul. So beginning at verse 16, we're gonna walk through the three layers of the literature here. We're gonna come to the central point, and then we're gonna walk out the same three layers and see how Paul was obedient to his commissioning.

So on the way in, the commissioning, verse 16, but rise and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose to appoint you as a servant and a witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you. So layer one, Christ is commissioning Paul as his witness. Layer two, seventeen verse 17, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you. So the promise Paul thought it was his duty to defend God. Here's God's promise to Saul.

I'm going to defend you. Layer three, verse 18. What for what purpose did, Jesus confront Paul? To open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God and that they may receive forgiveness of sin and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. And then the center point of this passage, verse eight or verse 19, Therefore, oh, king Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.

Then we begin step stepping out. We'll come back to that central point, which we saw in verse 18 that that Saul was, called to call people to turn to the Lord. In verse 20, we see that's what's what Paul is doing. But declared first of all to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem and through all the region of Judea and also to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God performing deeds in keeping with repentance. And then verse 21, God promised protection.

Verse 21, God gives protection. For this reason, the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. To this day, I have had the help that comes from God. And then finally, Paul fulfills the call to be a witness for Jesus Christ. And so I stand here testifying both to small and great saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass, that Christ must suffer and that by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.

Did you take driver's ed? When I was in driver's ed, there was a point that was drilled into us over and over and over, it seemed like every day. And that point was when you come to a stop sign or you come to a red traffic traffic signal, you must stop. No matter how good you are, no matter how how well you perform on the driver's test, if you blow through a red light or blow through a stop sign, you're going to flunk. Over and over, we heard that.

I think the instructors were worried for their lives, which I I can appreciate. But I was kinda surprised when we got towards the end of the course and understood or was told that there was an exception to that rule. The exception was that if there is a police offer officer in the intersection, you obey the police officer in the direction that that officer is given rather than obeying the the, traffic signal. And that's basically what Paul is saying here to king Agrippa. There was a a a a within the Roman culture, Roman society, there was a great value placed on law.

If you didn't, if you weren't willing to keep the laws and the customs of the Romans, you were going to pay the price. But Romans also recognized there was a time when the law was to be ignored. And when was that time? If if you had a divine oracle, if God spoke to you and sent you in a different direction, gave you a a different, instruction, it was your obligation no matter what to obey the voice of of the divine. And that's the defense that Paul is making here in this passage.

He says, King Agrippa, I was obedient to the heavenly vision. Agrippa gets the point. Paul's accusers are saying Paul's violated the law. Paul Paul's a law breaker. Paul should be punished.

Paul should be be killed. And so Paul makes the point here. No, King Agrippa, as you yourself recognize, when God gives us a command, when God gives us direction, we obey the direction no matter what other people are telling us. So Paul's defense, to, Agrippa is laid out. But notice that Paul doesn't just leave it there.

Paul was commissioned by Jesus Christ to be a witness, to bring the light of Jesus to those that that he would be put before the the people of Israel, the Gentiles, and here he is before the king and the elite of the city. And so Paul doesn't just give a defense. Paul here stands up and gives a witness for his Lord Jesus Christ. He calls a, King Agrippa and all those in attendance to to come to the same light that he found on the road to Damascus. He becomes that witness.

Now when we read through this story, we might expect it to read a little bit differently. We might cheer if we see Jesus come and confront Saul on the road to Damascus and just wipe him out, execute justice and vengeance on him, you know, a good David and Goliath story. Yeah. God's the victor. But that's not the way this story reads, and then, incredibly, it's so much sweeter because it does not.

Because what we see in this story is what we hope for ourselves, This incredible, hatred that that Saul has for God and his people is not rewarded with justice, rather it's rewarded with God's mercy. And this is the Messiah that Saul comes to meet on the road to Damascus. And I'm so glad that's that's our Messiah because you and I are part of this story. You and I, like Saul, have been on our own road. We've been following our own selfish desires.

We've been living a life in darkness that's centered around our own desires in rebellion of God, and we're on a road that's leading to destruction, and that's where we deserve to go. But the mercy of God, in the same way it was shown to Paul on the road to Damascus, is shed and shown in our lives. And the story doesn't end there because just as Paul was called as a witness to share the light of Jesus Christ with his world, that same privilege is passed on to us as image bearers of God to take a little piece of the light and the love of God into the world where God has placed us. I think I mentioned that section in second Corinthians where the apostle Paul seems to be reflecting upon his experience on the road to Damascus and then generalizing it out, for us, the fellow servants of Jesus Christ. So I want to close with just a couple of sentences, a couple of verses from second Corinthians chapter three and four where Paul brings out that parallel that we too have seen the light of Christ and it's transforming us.

Yes. To this day, whenever Moses is red, a veil lies over their heart. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed, and we all with unveiled face behold the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is spirit. For God who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that their surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. Thanks be to God. Pray with me. Father, we thank you for this familiar story that we confess that so often we've looked upon these accounts in our bible, and they seem so distant and so remote, to us. We thank you this morning that as we look at the experience of Paul, we find ourselves.

We find ourselves in it. We see our unworthiness, and we see your grace. And we thank you, father. Thank you for calling us, for saving us, and for giving us a privilege to bear your light to our world. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.