Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: The last guy in the world who thought he was sincere, Saul, but he was so wrong. You'd think, "Oh, wait a minute, he's never going to accept Christ. He's the last guy in the world to become a Christian." But guess what? When God chooses someone, like he does Saul of Tarsus, it's going to happen. This is why you don't want to give up on people.

In your mind, who's the last person in the world of people you know that will ever become a Christian? Can I just say, don't sell the Lord short.

Guest (Male): Acts chapter nine records one of the most dramatic conversions in all of scripture. Saul, a fierce persecutor of Christians, while on the road to Damascus, encountered the risen Jesus. As we observe the Lord confronting Saul's rebellion while extending his grace, Pastor Brett Meador says we're reminded how no one is beyond the reach of God's mercy in our study of today's word.

Brett Meador: Have you ever noticed how people can be so sincere, but they can also be sincerely wrong? Sincerity and passion, just because somebody's really passionate about something, doesn't mean that it's correct. There's a lot of people that have been sincere, but sincerely wrong. We have maybe the champion of that in Acts chapter nine. Someone who's sincere, passionate, but sincerity plus passion does not equal correctness. We have to see this story for what it is and maybe a couple of things we can introspectively wonder, "Lord, am I overly passionate about something that actually is just not even correct?"

This guy, his name was Saul of Tarsus. His new name's going to be Paul. His BC days' name, before he was a Christian, was Saul of Tarsus, and that's kind of where we meet him. Let's take a look. It's Acts chapter nine, verse one. And there it says, "And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem."

This is kind of the setup we see here in verses one and two. Saul, he's already in the midst of persecution. The early church has already been scattered because they're actually killing Christians, like they did Stephen, and they're actually imprisoning men and women, putting them in prison because they were Christians. Paul is a leader of this.

Verse three says, "And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"

A beam of light shines on him, he's knocked to the ground, we're going to see that his eyes are blinded for three days. This is going to be a big shake-up in Saul of Tarsus's life. We see Jesus saying, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" And then Saul says, "Who art thou, Lord?" He kind of knew, didn't he? He sort of knew that he was the Lord, but he wasn't 100% sure, so he's like, "Who art thou, Lord? Is that you, Lord?" This is that moment I think he's starting to think, "Was I wrong about this thing the whole time?" Who art thou, Lord? Saul knew, even though he was asking.

Then Jesus's response, what a heartbreaking thing, he says, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." Now, he says that and then he says, "It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." If you have an NIV or an ESV, you'll notice there's a section there that I was reading from the King James that said, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." If your Bible doesn't say that, it also doesn't have the verse in Acts chapter eight, verse thirty-seven. You're missing chapter eight, verse thirty-seven in your previous chapter.

It has to do which manuscripts those translators used to translate the Bible. There's different text manuscripts of the Bible they use to translate, depending on which one, there's just little nuance differences in some of those translations. Realize it's spoken elsewhere in the Bible. Let me just show you real quick before we move on from that. This is Acts twenty-six where Paul's retelling the story. Let's read it real quick. It says, "Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, At midday, O king..." This is Paul talking about this to Herod Agrippa.

He says, "I was at midday, O king, saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me. And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." And that's in your NIV and your ESV as well in Acts twenty-six, twelve through fourteen.

The point that I make is no sweat, it's there in your Bible. Whether the scribes added it to Acts chapter nine or if the older texts didn't have it for some reason, we don't need to worry because it doesn't change theology or doctrine or anything like that. Back to Acts chapter nine, you might be missing that line. Now, the next thing we have to do is what in the world does that line mean? "It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks."

Some of you Johnny Cash fans are like, "Yeah, that's a Johnny Cash song." It is, but he got it from right here in the Bible. Where did Johnny Cash get that? Acts chapter nine or Acts chapter twenty-four. "It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks." What's he talking about? He's talking about his own life, Johnny Cash was, because he did that.

What does it mean? If you're looking at an old ancient drawing of oxen and a guy plowing in the dirt, you'll notice he's got a long stick. We would call that maybe more modern, we'd call it an ox goad. But in Bible times, they called that a prick because it had a prickly needle, pointy part at the end, and they would sort of poke the ox in the rear end to make sure that they would move forward if they were being stubborn or if they were wanting to go off course, they would sort of nudge them with the stick. And if they just kept going, then they'd give it a little poke in the rear.

Then the ox, if they were really stubborn, they'd start kicking against the goads. This is an idiom that Jesus is using. "Paul, you're a stubborn ox, man. Don't you see how hard it is to do what you're doing? You're doing something that's hard. You're trying to be holy and you're trying to do all this stuff, but you're actually kicking against my prodding to move you in the right direction and you're kicking against that. It's hard for you to kick against the pricks."

Can I just say, some of you have lived that life. Johnny Cash lived that life, that's why he sang about that. He kicked against the Lord. He lived a rebel life, and you can see that in his story. But eventually, he came to know Christ like Saul of Tarsus. Some of you had that story where you kicked against the Lord and you felt the pain of that, and living the life of a sinner was hard. But eventually, you repented and you came to Christ and you realized Jesus really is the way.

This is where Paul is going to have to learn this. Don't forget what Proverbs 13:15 declares. It says, "Good understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard." Maybe some of you right now, you're still kicking against the goads. I hope that's not you, but maybe your life is not really what you hoped it'd be. Maybe things aren't as fun and happy as you thought living in your life and your style.

But your grandma's been praying for you for years. Maybe some of you are here because mom dragged you to church. But you're kicking against the Lord and you're kicking against the Holy Spirit that's been tapping you on the shoulder for years, but you're just like, "Yeah, I don't want Christianity. The church is full of hypocrites." Or you got your excuses, you got all your, "Why I don't understand, did Adam have a belly button?" Or "Why does man have a tailbone?"

You know all those questions atheists like to rattle around. And by the way, there's answers I think to all that stuff. But that's really not the issue, is it? The issue really is you're just being stubborn and you don't want to go with your mom's plan of becoming a Christian or your grandma's prayers, or you're just being stubborn because you think, "I've got too many questions." But you know in your heart there's a stir, I'll just tell you what that is. That's the Holy Spirit tapping you on the shoulder that's saying you must be born again. You got to come by faith and believe.

Then you can answer all those questions till you're blue in the face because there's always going to be questions. But once you accept Christ, repent of your sins, you will see that the Lord is true and right and good even as Paul is about to do here. Or you can choose the hard way and be the way of the transgressor, the sinner, that's hard. It's just harder. In Acts chapter nine, we see Saul, who was kicking against the Lord and the Lord knocks him down, blinds him. This is how radical it has to be to get Paul to be converted.

And so he says, "It's hard for you, Paul. This is why it's hard for you. You're kicking against my prodding to get you on the right path." So he says, "What should I do?" In fact, let's keep reading there in verse six. "He trembling astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do."

Don't you love how God doesn't give very clear instructions? Remember with Philip, just go to the desert and I'll tell you what to do when you get there. Same thing here, go to the city and I'll tell you. It's like Jesus's response to what must I do, Lord, the response was, go and find out. Go to the city of Damascus and I'll lead you when you get there. This is pretty cool.

Verse seven says, "And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man." So the guys didn't see anybody there, but they heard the voice. Implication, I wonder, it seems that maybe Paul, or I should say Saul of Tarsus, saw Jesus, maybe an incarnation of Jesus in his resurrected form again, maybe. We don't know for sure, but it does seem like the men didn't see it, but they did hear it. So it makes us understand Saul wasn't hallucinating, but this is just what happened.

The others heard the voice and so what happens? Verse eight, "And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither did he eat nor drink." He's a little traumatized here, wouldn't you say? He's not eating, he's not drinking, he's blind and here's this powerful man that's going around arresting people and putting them in prison and even killing people.

Now he's being led like a child because he's blind and he has to be led by the hand to go somewhere and he's just saying, "I'm not eating, I'm not drinking." What is he doing? We're going to see that he's praying, but also the Lord was going to use those three days to do a work. Is Saul of Tarsus saved yet? Where did Saul actually officially accept Christ and become a believer? I'm not sure that's happened yet in our story. I'll show you where I think it does happen.

But there's something you should know about this three days if you're a Bible student. There's a lot of three day things in the Bible. Jonah was in the belly of a big fish for three days. Jesus was in the tomb three days and rose on the third day. This is kind of a thing in the Bible, three days. And it often speaks from death to life or even rebirth. In the three days here we see Saul with blindness and deprivation of food and water. It would only be after three days of sort of dying to himself, losing the Saul of Tarsus. You got to get the Saul of Tarsus to find the Paul the Apostle and it took three days of sort of brokenness, no eating.

I think he's seeking the Lord. In fact, we see this in verse ten. "And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord. And the Lord said unto him, Arise, go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth."

Pause for a second. There's a few things that I love about this section. First of all, notice where he goes to Straight Street in Damascus. The reason I think that's interesting, did you know that that street is still there in Damascus to this day? There's still Straight Street, the same street from 2,000 years ago. I love how the Bible comes to life when you go to the Middle East and you see these literal places that are talked about in the scriptures.

He's supposed to go there and he's supposed to go to a guy named Judas, go to his house. This is just funny, maybe I'm weird, but I find it interesting. The three names in this story, we've got Saul, we got Ananias, and we got Judas. If you're thinking about they're not really great names, historically, in the Bible.

Saul was the first king of Israel, a loser. Saul was a loser. Remember he was wacko, tried to kill David and then he went nuts and then he went and saw the witch at Endor and did a bunch of necromancy things, and eventually got slaughtered on the mountains of Gilboa. Whether he committed suicide or whatever, it's questionable thing, but his body ends up being hung on the walls of Beth Shan where the birds pick off his flesh. Like it's not a great thing. The Jews weren't like, "Yay Saul! He's our king, man." That was like a black eye on their history, Saul. That's Saul.

Ananias, in even recent history, what happened to him? Remember he's the guy that went in and said he gave all his money and he kicked over dead and they hauled him out and buried him outside of the church. That happened early in the book of Acts. Judas, enough said. It's like none of you are naming your child Adolf right now. Nobody's doing that because there's an association with the word.

In the same way, I find it interesting in this very redemptive story, you got these names that actually go back to some really dark history. And this sort of reminds me of just the redemption and the work of God. It reminds me of 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." I see sort of redemption.

Here's Judas, who for some reason opens his house for Saul of Tarsus. This guy Judas, who's going to open their house to a slaughtering, murderous hater of Christians? Judas opens his house to Saul. And then Ananias, he's not a bishop or an elder, he's not a deacon in the church, he's not a pastor, he's just some dude in Damascus. The Lord says, "I'm going to use you Ananias, you need to go and meet Saul of Tarsus."

Back to the story, what was Ananias's response to this? I love his honest response in verse thirteen. "Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name." He just says, "Lord, you want me to go see this Saul of Tarsus? Just to remind you, Lord, he's a bad dude."

Look at verse fifteen. "But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake." So God confirms and says, "Get up and go and see this guy, don't worry, he's my man. Saul, even though he's a murderous, horrible dude, I'm going to transform him and he's going to speak before kings."

If you know the story of Paul the Apostle, he did just that. He'd speak before Caesar Nero, Emperor in Rome. This is quite a moment in history. How does Ananias do it? Does he go with fear and trepidation? Is he going to be a little leery of this guy Saul of Tarsus? Check this out, verse seventeen. "And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost."

Don't you love Ananias? I appreciate him for just coming in, even after saying, "Lord, I'm a little nervous about this guy. Is this going to be okay?" Lord says, "Go, I got this. He's going to be a great tool in my toolbox. You just got to go and do what you're called to do." So he goes in and if I were Ananias, I'd be tempted to kind of walk in, look around the corner and say, "Where is the dude, Saul of Tarsus?" And there he is standing in the middle, I'd say, "You're Saul, right? Yeah. Tell me what you think about Jesus. What's your views on Christianity at this point?"

I'd be tempted to do a little probing before I was, but I love it, Ananias comes walking in, puts his arm around him and says, "Brother Saul." That's bold. You got to love Ananias for that. And by the way, I think that's how we should be toward people who are on the verge of accepting Christ. We need to come and be loving and kind and big-hearted and not fearful.

One of the big mistakes churches do is while the world is looking into the church saying full of sinners and hypocrites. But one of the reasons I think we get that reputation is because we in the church look out and when somebody comes into our church that doesn't look like us or act like us, we're like, "Ew, a sinner." We've seen a lot of strange stuff come in here, but a lot of neat people getting saved.

Hopefully Athey Creek gets the big arm around "Hey brother, come on in. Welcome to the church." We've seen it. We've had Gypsy Jokers motorcycle club come in and sit down and line up. We want people to come and hear the gospel. Remember, you can't clean the fish before you catch them. You got to remember that. Sometimes the church does a really bad thing when we sort of look down our sanctimonious noses at people.

I love Ananias. He just comes, wraps his arm around the murdering, persecuting Saul of Tarsus and says, "Hey brother, come on in. I'm here just like the dream told you and we're going to get you baptized and filled with the Holy Ghost." You just got to love this. In fact, it goes on in verse nineteen, it says, "And when he had received meat, he was strengthened." I love that. That's a life verse for me right there. "When he received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus."

Can you imagine the Christians at Damascus? They're hanging out with the persecutor Saul of Tarsus for three days just chilling. It's hard to even imagine that, but let's just pretend that Kim Jong Un showed up to church, the leader of North Korea, and he just comes walking up with his security or whatever and sits down right in the front row. What would you think about that? He's a murderous dictator. Why is he here at our church?

But what happens if he accepts Christ and becomes a Christian? Then we're just hanging out with Kim Jong Un for a while. You'd be like, "That'd be weird." That's kind of the equivalent. You got this leader from Jerusalem who's slaughtering people and putting them in prison and now they're all chilling, hanging out with Saul of Tarsus. What a shocker.

This is really as far as I'd like to take this story, but I think it leaves us with a few questions that are important. First of all, are there people that you think there's no way in the world they would ever accept Christ? In your mind, who's the last person in the world of people you know that will ever become a Christian? Can I just say, don't sell the Lord short.

I have to admit, in my lifetime, I've seen people that I would have said, "Never. That person's never going to become a Christian. They're the farthest thing from a Christian I would ever imagine." And I have to say over the years, I've watched the Lord do works in people's lives where even those people have accepted Christ. This is why you don't want to stop sharing the love of Christ with people. This is why you don't want to give up on people.

The last guy in the world who thought he was sincere, the persecutor Saul. He was passionate, but he was so wrong. And so wrong was he, you'd think, "Oh, wait a minute, he's never going to accept Christ. He's the last guy in the world to become a Christian." But guess what? When God chooses someone, like he does Saul of Tarsus, it's going to happen.

Who's he going to use? Are you the Ananias in the story that needs to be open-hearted and say, "I'm going to just keep lovingly saying, come on in, brother, and accept Christ and be the person that's the tool that God uses"? Or the second person, maybe you're the Saul of Tarsus. Maybe you're the one who's like, "Yeah, I don't know if I ever want to become a Christian." And maybe you're just here and your grandma dragged you to church or whatever like we talked about earlier.

But maybe it's time to realize God has you here for a reason. Even as I like how Jesus says this in his word, "Don't worry about this guy, for he is a chosen vessel to me to bear my name before the Gentiles, before kings, and the children of Israel." I wonder if some of you are chosen by God, you just don't know it yet. And your life's been troubled, you've been kicking against the goads and then realizing, "Man, this isn't working out very well for me."

Maybe it's time for you to repent of your sin and accept the work of Christ. That Jesus died on the cross for your sins, rose from the ground and then see what happens. Can I just say, it's true, like the Lord said to Ananias, "This guy Saul, he's going to get saved and his life's going to get even harder." Just because you become a Christian doesn't mean your life's going to be easy or perfect.

But it does mean you're headed for heaven, eternal life in Christ, and your life will have meaning and it'll change. It might not be easy, but it's going to be way easier than kicking against the goads or the kicking against the pricks as it's called there in the Bible. This is a great day to just say, "Okay, I'm going to be transformed by Jesus and the cross." This is where you do that. This is why you're here. If you're not a Christian, there's a reason I think God has you here today.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador concluding a study in today's word of Acts chapter nine with the reminder of how God truly doesn't want anyone to perish, but that everyone comes to repentance. And Pastor Brett will return in just a moment with more on how to receive God's gift of free salvation.

But first, if you'd like to dive into scripture every day, you can find all of Pastor Brett's verse-by-verse studies online at todayswordradio.com. You can also watch full video messages by him by going to todayswordradio.com. Well, now for those wanting to know more about how to make a commitment to the Lord, here again is Pastor Brett Meador.

Brett Meador: I wonder if there might be some of you here today that would say, "I need to accept Christ. I need to repent of my sins. I've gone too long and too hard against the Lord." And maybe you don't have all the answers that you want to have intellectually, biologically, evolutionary or whatever issues you might have. But that's not really the issue here. We're talking about do you believe that Jesus died for your sins, rose from the grave?

And if you accept that and repent of your sins, the Bible says you'll be saved. If you'd like to accept that and confess that in faith, let's pray together. Dear Father in heaven, I believe in your son Jesus, that he died on the cross for my sins, that he rose up from the grave, and that I'm forgiven. Help me to walk with you. Thank you for saving me. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Meador here on today's word. And if you just prayed those words with Pastor Brett, we want to welcome you into the family of God. And to help, we've put together some teachings that will assist you as you begin your walk with Jesus. Just go to our website at todayswordradio.com and click on the link that says, "Are you a new believer?" Again, todayswordradio.com and click the link, new believer.

Well, we're so glad you've joined us today. Next time, Pastor Brett will continue another verse-by-verse study looking at the Acts of the Apostles. Today's word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.