One thing you quickly learn when you get to the seminary is that would-be pastors come in all shapes and sizes. A lot of guys are in their early 20’s, straight out of college, with degrees that run the liberal and fine arts gamut. And then you have the 2nd career guys. Guys who have spent years, sometimes even decades in the workforce who have now decided to once again become full-time students. Teachers, mechanics, army captains, policemen, undertakers, college administrators. All successful in their previous fields, many with wives and children, all now sitting next to you in class, taking notes and writing papers.
As varied as the background of pastors and future pastors might be, as unexpected as some of their entries into the ministry might be, I doubt that any of them can hold a candle to Saul of Tarsus. We’re first introduced to Saul during the martyrdom of Stephen, guarding the clothes of those hurling the stones, approving of their actions. We know that Paul was a Pharisee. By his own definition “Pharisee of the Pharisees.” His zeal and adherence to the Law were without question. Though a Jew, he was also a citizen of Rome. He was well educated. And above all, he sought to destroy the growing group of people who followed and believed in the man known as Jesus of Nazareth.
Saul was in the Christian-hunting business, and business was good. In Acts 8:3 we read these words, “But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.” And then, at the beginning of our reading for today we’re told, “Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.”
Saul was not someone you would ever expect to meet on a seminary campus. Not as a student, anyway. And yet, God chose this man to be His chosen instrument. To be the evangelist to the Gentiles. To be the author of 13 books of the New Testament. To arguably be the most prolific and important witness to Jesus Christ that the world has ever known.
But why? Of all people, why Saul? Why would God even let this man continue to live, never mind be His servant? Certainly from a human perspective it was a choice that makes less than zero sense. If faced with making the decision to choose someone to be a missionary to the nations, most people would go with the well-trained, passionate Christian. At the very least they’d choose someone who wasn’t actively seeking to kill those who believed in the very message the person was going to be sent to proclaim. And if Saul had been required to apply to the seminary before being sent out, he never would have made it. Putting “Christian-hunter” as his previous occupation would have had his application tossed in the trash in no-time flat. Why would God choose him?
Of course, before we can answer that question, there’s another question that needs to be asked. Why would God choose us? After all, each of was born sinful. Each of us was born an enemy of God. This truth is highlighted for us in Romans 5. I’m going to highlight a few relevant snippets, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned--...For if the many died by the trespass of the one man,...The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation,....For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man,...Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men.”
All of us were sinful. All of us are guilty of sinning each and every day. Perhaps we aren’t guilty of the same sins as Saul, but we are equally as guilty. James 2:10 says, “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” And of course the punishment for breaking God’s Law is death. So whether we want to admit it or not, we’re really no better, no more deserving of being chosen and used by God than Saul.
So as Paul traveled along the road on his way to Damascus, he did so blind to the truth of Jesus Christ. But as he traveled he was brought to his knees as he was surrounded by light and heard a voice say, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Saul had a very natural response. “But Lord, who are you?” Imagine the shock, the dread that must have seized him when he heard the response. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” When he got up he discovered he was blind, this time literally. And for three days he was alone with his thoughts, not even eating as he considered what had happened to him, and what he had been told.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve never had an experience anything close to what Saul had on the Damascus road. Rather, I should say that I’ve never had an experience as dramatic as what Paul had, because at its root level, I have had a similar experience. And so have you. As many of you likely were, I didn’t have much say in the matter as I was brought to the baptismal fount. In fact, some of us might have been quite vocally against it, crying and screaming over the pastor’s words, wailing as cold water was suddenly poured over our heads. When you get right down to it, this is essentially the same thing that happened to Saul.
Saul wasn’t ready for the role God in mind for him. He was quite content doing what he was doing. He was happy going along, blind to his sin and need for forgiveness. When Jesus spoke, he didn’t give Saul any say in the matter. He didn’t make any arguments for why Saul should listen to him. He didn’t provide evidence for why Saul should believe in him. He didn’t dialog with Saul about whether he was the Christ. He simply appeared to him, made himself known, and sets him on a whole new path.
Indeed, God did essentially to us the very same thing that He did to Paul. He simply called us His own by His own very clear and straight-forward declaration. "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” It was by His work, by His grace that we have been lifted up out of the curse of sin and made his children. It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we are brought out of our own spiritual blindness and into faith in Jesus Christ.
In Saul’s moment of conversion and in our own, we see that there is no human action involved in coming to Christ. There is no decision of faith to be made. After all, our Lord himself says rather clearly in John 15:16, " You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit." There was no decision of faith on the part of Saul. God just simply informed him that he was His child, and that from now on, he had a new job, and a new boss.
Why did God choose a man like Saul? For the very same reason He chose us. Because He loved Saul. And he loves us. And because of that, he has called each of us not just by our own name, but by His.
The great heroes of scriptures weren’t great because they were great men and women. They were ordinary, sinful people through whom God did things. If God can take a mortal enemy like Saul and turn him into the greatest Christian evangelist in history, then there is no limit to what God can do with the likes of those who occupy these pews or this pulpit this Sunday. God can and does do amazing things!
Always and only, Saul would grow to point to the grace of God which was his in Christ Jesus. Saul of course would change his name to Paul, and he would eventually write in his letter to the Galatians, “But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man.” It was not men who empowered him, but God! And that is precisely the way it works with us. We would have no light shine on us as personal individuals as we are about the work of the kingdom of God. But always, and only like Saul, we must point to Christ. Christ who is all and who does all through the power of his grace.
Everything is done by the impetus of God. Not by decisions of human will. Just like Paul, we are the product of grace alone. Like Paul we are former enemies of God who have been washed clean in the blood of the lamb of God. Solely by his grace our sins are no longer an outstanding debt which we cannot possibly replay. Instead, the repayment has been done by the one who offered His life, and sacrifice, for our sin. And there is no sin that you have that is strong enough to overcome the power of his grace and love.
We have done nothing. Christ has done everything. It is His full payment for sin, not anything we offer, that brings us the salvation that is ours. And once more, like Paul, we shouldn’t stop talking about it. We can’t stop talking about it! Like Paul, our very lives can be nothing but instruments of God for the building up of His kingdom.
It doesn’t matter what you do for a living. I don’t care if you’re a contractor, a banker, a counselor, a homemaker, or a retiree. It makes no difference. Anything that accomplishes God’s purposes in any of those roles are things which God is working in your life in order to expand His kingdom. Because of that, everything that we do in life is sacred. Because God is at work, and he has chosen us to be instruments of making His love known.
In Paul we see how a former enemy of God was obedient. How he was a servant of Christ. An instrument at the disposal of the Almighty one through His good works and to bring about His will. Not because he was great, but because God is great.
You and I are not great, but God is great in us. And I pray that we too may be willing servants like our brother Paul. That we too may be instruments of sharing the grace and mercy we have been called to know with others, so that they too may hear and believe. Amen.
