Acts: The Expansion of the Church
Session 5
Estimated reading time: 25 minutes
Saul’s Conversion
In this session, we will be looking at Saul’s conversion. This story and record of Saul and how he became born again is one of the most startling and dramatic transformations that is recorded in the entire Book of Acts. It takes Saul, from being a Pharisee, a very devout and zealous Pharisee, all the way to being called the Apostle. We are going to answer a series of questions tonight that are all about Saul. The first question is; where was he from? We need to open up in Acts chapter 21, verse 39:
Acts 21:39 APNT
Paul said to him, “I am a Judean man from Tarsus, the notable city of Cilicia in which I was born. I beg you [to] allow me to speak to the people.”
This takes place after he was in Jerusalem for the last time and was being captured and he says, “I am a Judean man, a Jew, from Tarsus.” Tarsus is a large city in the province of Cilicia. It says in King James that he was “a citizen of no mean city.” He was a citizen: he said that he was a citizen of Tarsus. It also says in Acts 22: 27, he was also a Roman citizen. In our way of thinking, if you are a citizen of the Roman Empire, then you would be a citizen everywhere. If you were a citizen of Tarsus, you should be a citizen of the Roman Empire in general; but that was not true. You could be a citizen of a province or a provincial city and still not be a Roman citizen because a Roman citizenship meant you were a citizen of the city of Rome, not the Empire. It is different than the way we look at it. If you were a Roman citizen, you had many more privileges than if you were just a citizen of a province.
Paul is talking to the chiliarch (a commander of 1,000 men in ancient Greece) and the Centurion:
Acts 22:28 APNT
And the chiliarch answered and said, “I obtained Roman citizenship with much money.” Paul said to him, “But I was even born in it.”
In order to be “born in it,” means either his father or his grandfather was a Roman citizen; then you could be born in it. How his father or his grandfather obtained the Roman citizenship, we do not know; but there are several ways he could have received it. One possibility could have been that he had done a service for someone who was in Rome.
Now the second question is: where was Saul raised and educated? We will continue in Acts 22, but go up to verse 3, to answer this question.
Acts 22:3 APNT
I am a Judean man and I was born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but I was educated in this city (In Jerusalem) beside the feet of Gamaliel and was instructed perfectly in the law of our fathers. And I was zealous of God, even as also all of you are.
He stated he was raised and educated in Tarsus, but then he also went to Jerusalem and studied with the leader of the Pharisees, whose name was Gamaliel, and he had a school in Jerusalem. There was known to be approximately a thousand students at that time studying under Gamaliel. Saul would have been very privileged to have been part of this elite group of education. One of the things that I thought for a long time was Saul had come to Jerusalem when he was a teenager, and had been there quite a long time. I think I have changed my opinion about it, and it is not etched in stone. If I learn something different, I will tell you later. I find it difficult to reconcile the idea that if Saul had been in Jerusalem during the time of Jesus’ ministry, and the time of the crucifixion, where the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees were so involved in trying to kill him, that there would be no mention of that at all in the records in Acts, or even in the epistles. If Saul had been there during that time, it would make sense that he would have said he had at least known of Jesus, or something like that. If Saul actually came to Jerusalem right around 29 AD, after all of these events had taken place, then it fits with many other things he says about himself.
We can see a little bit more of his background that he says about himself, in Philippians 3:
Philippians 3:5-6 APNT
[I was] circumcised [when] eight days old, from the family of Israel, from the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew, the son of Hebrews, in the law, of the Pharisees,
in zeal, a persecutor of the church, and in the justification of the law, I was without blame.
Paul is saying he had all the credentials of being a high-echelon Pharisee, which would have meant that he would have been raised as a Pharisee when he was very young, and taught much about the oral law and about the law in general. He could have studied with rabbis. In Tarsus there was an excellent university where many of the young people would have studied. With all of that in mind it is a little bit more likely that he came to Jerusalem later.
We can see in from Acts 26, beginning in verse 4, some of Saul’s youth and his upbringing as a Pharisee.
Acts 26:4-5 APNT
For those Judeans also know, if they were willing to testify, [that] my manner of life was from my childhood, from the beginning, among my people and in Jerusalem,
because from long ago they were aware of me and know that I lived in the best teaching of the Pharisees.
According to those verses, he was raised from a youth in the teaching of the Pharisees. However it does not say this happened in Jerusalem. He says, ‘My manner of life was from my childhood, from the beginning, among my people, (in Tarsus) and in Jerusalem.’ It is not clear exactly when he came to Jerusalem, but we do know that he was raised and educated in the strictest sect of the Judeans, which was the Pharisees.
As you recall, we had read earlier, in Acts, chapter 8, that Saul had been intricately involved with the stoning of Stephen. In verse 3, right after Stephen is buried, it says:
Acts 8:3 APNT
And Saul was persecuting the church of God, entering into houses and dragging away men and women and delivering [them] to prison. (King James says, ‘He made havoc.’)
He was “ravaging,” is another translation from the ESV. He was ravaging the church. So something happened dramatically to really fuse his anger, right at the time when Stephen is stoned. Here are some other descriptions. We will take a look at Galatians chapter 1.
Galatians 1: 13-14 APNT
For you have heard of my previous way of life that was in Judaism, that I had greatly persecuted the church of God and ruined it.
And I excelled in Judaism more than many [of] my contemporaries who were my countrymen. And I was very zealous in the teaching of my fathers.
He took Pharisaism to the extreme. Part of the extremism was because he was so upset about this new sect of people who worshiped and believed in Jesus as the Messiah, that he ruined it. He tried to destroy it. He was violent about it. We can see a more descriptive explanation in Acts 9.
Acts 9: 1 APNT
And Saul was still full of threatening and the anger of murder against the disciples of our Lord.
He was full of the “anger of murder.” It was as if he was “breathing out threatenings” as KJV states. The picture in the Old Testament of severe anger is one would just blow out of the nostrils like a raging beast. That is exactly how it came across. His anger was so furious and so full and so demonstrative that he went to the place where his ultimate goal was to murder every Christian he could find. It was not just a “nice little” persecution. He was bent on murdering every Christian he could find! Now we can also look at Acts 22.
Acts 22:4-5 APNT
“I persecuted this way, (They called Christianity “the way,” during this time) to the death, binding and delivering men and women to prison.
As the chief priests and all of the elders witness about me, from them I received letters to go to the brothers that are in Damascus, that I should also bring those who were there to Jerusalem, being bound and to receive punishment.”
The punishment he wanted them to receive was death. He was not going to settle for anything less than death. In Acts 26: 9, Paul speaks about his former life.
Acts 26:9-11 APNT
For formerly, I had set in my mind that I would do many adverse [things] against the name of Jesus the Nazarene.
This I also did in Jerusalem and I threw many holy [ones] in prison by the authority that I received from the chief priests And when they were killed by them, I shared fully with those who condemned them.
And in every synagogue I tortured them, compelling [them] to blaspheme in the name of Jesus. And with the great anger that I was filled with against them, I also went to other cities to persecute them.
This is a very vivid description of the anger and the fullness of the anger he had in his heart against the Christians and the believers; anybody who spoke the name of Jesus. Being aware of Saul’s extreme anger and the measures he was taking against the believers; it is even more dramatic to see how quickly and how dramatically he is changed on the way to Damascus.
What exactly did happen on the way to Damascus? To answer this question, we will be going back to Acts 9. There are actually three separate times in the Book of Acts where Paul tells the story of his conversion, and there are unique details in each one of them. We will basically only look at Acts chapter 9. I encourage you to make a chart and put the three passages in columns; then write all the details out of exactly what happened one after another. It is really interesting to see that. Here are the passages that pertain to Saul’s conversion: Acts 9:1-19, Acts 22: 4-17, and Acts 26: 9-18. These are the three sections where Paul describes his conversion.
We will look at the first section in Acts 9:
Acts 9:3-6 APNT
And as he went and approached Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven shone on him.
And he fell on the ground and heard a voice that said to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick at the goads.”
He answered and said, “Who are you, my Lord?” And our Lord said, “I am Jesus, the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.
But rise up, enter the city, and there you will be told about what you ought to do.”
Let’s go over what we have seen so far. There is a great light that shines from heaven; it is a blinding light. He falls on the ground and hears a voice that said to him ‘Saul, Saul.’ When there is a repetition like this where it is, ‘Saul, Saul,’ it is a very solemn way of getting someone’s attention. When Samuel first heard the voice of God, iswas ‘Samuel, Samuel.’ It is very similar. The Lord is calling to him, “Saul, Saul” to get through all the darkness that is surrounding him. The first thing he says to him is, “Why are you persecuting me?” Was he actually persecuting Jesus? No! He was persecuting his disciples. From the very beginning, the Lord Jesus is telling him, “If you are persecuting my disciples, that means you are persecuting me.” This was Saul’s first glimpse into the believers being part of Jesus Christ’s body.
Then Saul has this great question: “Who are you, Lord?” That is the question we should all be looking for whenever we want to talk to somebody about the Lord Jesus Christ. If someone is genuinely asking, ‘Who is he, what did he do, I don’t get it,’ then you have an open door to finally be able to tell them who he really is. “Oh yes, he is the one who is the Messiah. He was crucified and but now he is raised.” Exactly like the apostles were doing at the very beginning. However, this time the Lord Jesus appears in his resurrected body on the road to Damascus. He appears right in front of Saul. What Saul must have been going through his mind! “Oh, that is what Stephen said, that he saw the Lord Jesus standing on the right hand of the throne of God, shining. There he is. This must be true. It must be true.” Everything he had heard about Jesus came into focus in this one moment where it comes together for him: that the resurrection must really be true! We continue in verse 7:
Acts 9:7 APNT
And the men who were traveling with him on the journey were standing amazed, because they were hearing a voice only, but no one was visible to them.
Some other records say they heard a voice but they did not understand it. They heard a voice but they did not see the Lord Jesus. Saul alone saw him and only Saul understood what he said to them. At the very end we will see a little bit more of what the Lord Jesus said to him at this time, but for now, I am going to keep you guessing. The greatest point of everything up until now is, that if God, by way of sending the resurrected Lord Jesus, could turn the fiercest opponent of Christianity into His most willing convert, then it is a demonstration that anyone can be saved. There is nothing so difficult. Before you were saved did you try to kill other Christians. Not many of us could say that; but it is a very wonderful example of how loving God is.
So the next question is: “How did Saul get born again, and Who is Ananias?” We will go back to chapter 9, verse 8:
Acts 9:8-12 APNT
And Saul got up from the ground and he was not seeing anything, although his eyes were open. And holding [him] by his hands, they brought him to Damascus.
And he was not seeing [for] three days and he did not eat or drink.
And there was a certain disciple in Damascus, whose name was Ananias. And the LORD said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Behold, I [am here], my Lord.”
And our Lord said to him, “Rise up! Go to the street that is called Straight and ask at the house of Judas for Saul, who is from the city [of] Tarsus, for behold, while he was praying,
he saw in a vision that a man whose name [was] Ananias entered and placed a hand on him, so that his eyes would be opened.”
During these three days, God showed Saul a vision there would be a man named Ananias who would come and heal him. God also gave a very specific vision to Ananias, telling him to go to this particular house, on this particular street. The street called “Straight” in Damascus would be like telling someone to go to 5th Avenue in New York. It was a very well-known street. The place this man lived was also very well-known. What God had told Ananias to do would be equivalent to telling him to go 5th Avenue, to the penthouse suite, where the Russian Mafia lives and heal the man who is sitting there, AKA: Saul, public enemy number one for the believers! Naturally, Annias is protesting;
Acts 9:13-16 APNT
And Ananias said, “My Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how many evil [things] he has inflicted on your holy [ones] in Jerusalem.
And behold, also here, he has authority from the chief priests to bind all those who call on your name.” (They will put a hit on me!)
And the LORD said to him, “Rise up [and] go, because he is a chosen vessel for me to carry my name to the Gentiles (God told Ananias that Saul would be the one to carry the Word to the Gentiles, before any Gentiles have believed) and to kings and among the sons of Israel,
for I will show him how much he will suffer on account of my name.”
We will now go back to Acts 22 and read the story that describes what happened when Ananias came to see Saul.
Acts 22:12-15 APNT
And a certain man, Ananias, upright in the law, as all of the Judeans there witnessed about him,
came to me and said to me, ‘Saul, my brother, open your eyes!’ And immediately my eyes were opened and I looked at him.
And he said to me, ‘The God of our fathers has appointed you to know his will and to see the Just [one] (to see the resurrected Christ) and to hear the voice from his mouth.
And you will be a witness for him to all men about all that you have seen and heard.”
That is a fabulous prophecy because that is exactly what Saul or Paul went on to do. I saw something you might find interesting. It is called “The Visual Bible.” There are a number of the chapters from the Book of Acts available on YouTube that you can listen to. It is a straight reading of the Bible but it is visualized with dramatization using costumes and different people with different voices. The particular part about how Ananias healed Saul is really moving. I encourage you to look it up on YouTube. It is “The Visual Bible.” We will now go back to Acts 9.
Acts 9:17 APNT
Then Ananias went to him to the house and placed a hand on him and said to him, “Saul, my brother, our Lord Jesus, who appeared to you while you were coming on the road, has sent me, so that your eyes would be opened and you would be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
I want to point out in this verse, that Ananias came to Saul and said to him “Saul, my brother, our lord Jesus.” He said ‘our’lord Jesus” and called him ‘my brother.’ God had told Ananias between the time he went, when he had been given the vision to go and the time he actually enters the house, that Saul had believed completely, he had been, what we would call being “born again”, because he believed in the lordship of Jesus Christ. Ananias did not need to ask if he now believed that God raised Jesus from the dead. No, because he already knew. In addition, when Ananias said, “brother Saul,” that is the thing that really convinced Saul of the truth; the lord Jesus was true and he had his resurrected body.
We will now see what happens after this.
Acts 9:20- APNT
And immediately, he was preaching in the synagogues of the Judeans about Jesus, that he was the Son of God.
He put two and two together: if the Messiah is in the Old Testament, then the Messiah would have to be the son of God, and the son of God is the one about whom the Old Testament was speaking. Saul was zealous for the law. He was zealous for learning everything in the Old Testament. It must have been absolutely astounding to him. It would have been amazing to have spoken to him right then; to know he was thinking about from all he had learned from his upbringing. “Oh that is the verse in Isaiah.” Everything started fitting together from what he already knew from studying the scriptures. He immediately went into the synagogue to preach.
Acts 9:21 APNT
And all those who heard him were amazed and were saying, “Is this not he who persecuted all those who called on this name in Jerusalem? Also, he was sent here for this same [thing], to bind and bring them to the chief priests.
But Saul was strengthened even more and confounded the Judeans, those who lived in Damascus, showing that this is the Christ. (That Jesus who he was persecuting; he now is saying that he is the Messiah.)
We will take a look at Galatians at this point.
Galatians 1:15-18 APNT
Now when it pleased him, who had set me apart from the womb of my mother and called me by his grace,
to reveal his Son in me, that I should declare him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately reveal [this] to flesh and blood
and I did not go to Jerusalem to the apostles who were before me. But I went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus.
And after three years, I went to Jerusalem to see Peter and remained with him [for] fifteen days.
Somehow we also got the idea that Saul was in Damascus for a few days and then spends three years in Arabia, in the desert, by himself studying the scriptures. I do not know; but that is what I thought but it does not say that. It simply says there was a total of three years from the time he was converted until he went to Jerusalem for the first time. During that time he did spend some time in Arabia but that is also not like the southern part of what we call Arabia. What was called Arabia, at that time, was to the east of Damascus. It would be referred to now as Jordan. It is not that far away from Damascus. It is possible that he could have spent time in the cities surrounding Damascus. He could have spent time in the desert as well, however, it appears that he was continually preaching Christ. He did not stop preaching about Jesus as the Messiah from the day he was born again. This is a different picture than the way in which we have looked at it before now.
Now we go back to chapter 9. We are going to continue coming back here.
Acts 9:22-26a APNT
But Saul was strengthened even more and confounded the Judeans, those who lived in Damascus, showing that this is the Christ.
And after he had been there many days, (We know from Galatians that was three years.) the Judeans planned treachery against him to kill him.
But the plot that they were seeking to do to him was made known to Saul. And they watched the gates of the city, day and night, to kill him.
Then the disciples placed him in a basket and let him down from the wall during the night.
And he went to Jerusalem…
The Judeans were trying to kill him in Damascus so he decided, ‘Well, I might as well just go straight back to from where I came, where everyone there knows I was killing all the Christians and announce myself as a believer.’ He went to Jerusalem but once he gets there…
Acts 9:26b-31 APNT
…and wanted to join himself to the disciples yet all were afraid of him and did not believe that he was a disciple
But Barnabas (We remember Barnabas was a bridge builder and the son of Comfort is his name) took him and brought him to the apostles and related to them, how on the road he had seen the LORD and how he spoke with him and how in Damascus he had spoken boldly in the name of Jesus.
And he entered in and went out with them in Jerusalem.
And he was speaking in the name of Jesus boldly and disputing with the Judeans who understood in Greek. (He went to witness to the Hellenistic Christians just like Stephen and it we know from this verse that Sophists speak Greek.) But they wanted to kill him.
and when the brothers knew [this], they brought him to Caesarea by night and from there they sent him to Tarsus.
Nevertheless the church that was in all Judea and in Galilee and in Samaria had peace, being edified, and were proceeding in the fear of God and were abounding in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
That is a great summary verse of what has happened up until this time. We know Saul was in Jerusalem for fifteen days, then he went to Syria and Cilicia. We do not hear anything about him until Acts chapter 11. During this time period, what did he do? To find this out, we need to go back to Galatians 1. This could be a period of about 5 to 7 years. It also could be a little bit longer, depending on when you put the date of Saul’s conversion. The time that Galatians was written was approximately 49 AD. We do not know exactly how long he was in Syria and Tarsus and Cilicia. Another thing I had thought was he just went off the deep end and was sitting in his hometown, basically hanging out with his family. That is not what happened either. We have seen so far, everywhere he went he preached about Christ. He preached Christ in Tarsus and Cilicia for however long this period of time was for 5 to 7 years. Later in Acts 15 they were writing letters to the churches that are in Cilicia and Syria. Damascus is in Syria. Tarsus is in Cilicia. Who founded those churches? It had to have been Saul. He obviously went back to witness to his family and whoever else was there. Then he traveled around in that area. We will go back to Galatians 1, verse 18 again:
Galatians 1:18-24 APNT
And after three years, I went to Jerusalem to see Peter and remained with him [for] fifteen days.
But I did not see the rest of the apostles, except James, the brother of our Lord.
Now these [things] that I write to you, behold, before God, I am not lying!
After these [places], I came to the regions of Syria and of Cilicia.
And the churches in Judea that were in Christ did not know me personally.
But they had heard this only, “He who previously was persecuting us, behold, now is preaching the faith that he was overthrowing in a previous time.
And they were glorifying God on account of me.”
Isn’t that an awesome testimony of him? Now, also during this time, of a number of things happened to Saul, many of which are not recorded in the book of Acts. We will take a look at 2 Corinthians to see a description of the things that happened to him.
II Corinthians 11:24-25 APNT
Of the Judeans, five times I was beaten, each time forty [lashes] lacking one.
Three times I was beaten with rods, one time I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a day and a night I was without a ship in the seas” (…and it goes on, “many dangers”…)
Of the “many dangers”, the ones we know about; there was a shipwreck, which is recorded in Acts 27. He was beaten 2 or 3 times. We do not know whether it was with rods or 40 lashes. However, there is no time where there is ever any mention that he spent a day and a night in the deep or any other shipwreck. Nonetheless, if he had traveled from Jerusalem to Tarsus he would have gone on a ship. During the 5 to 7 years he spent in Syria and Cilicia, he was still witnessing to the Judeans and somewhat to the Gentiles. However, at this time, he had not really come into the fullness of the idea that he needed to go to the Gentiles.
Many of the events recorded in 2 Corinthinians 11 and 12, could have occurred during this
5 to 7 years Saul was in Syria and Cilicia. He talks about and describes this attack on him in 2 Corinthians 12:7, as a “thorn in the flesh.” Let’s read 2 Corinthians 12:9. This is what the Lord said to him after all these things happened to him. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” Paul’s response to Him was; “Therefore, I will gladly boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ will rest on me.”
It is also during this time in Cilicia, God gave him the vision of the third heaven and of what was to come in the future. God gave him incredible visions, taught him about grace and taught him how everything fit together from the Old Testament to the New.
Now we will go to end in Acts chapter 26. This is what Jesus Christ said to him when he is on the road to Damascus, and he saw this magnificent light. It is then he realized that it is really true that Jesus Christ is resurrected.
Acts 26:16 APNT
And he said to me, ‘Stand on your feet. For I have appeared to you because of this, to ordain you [as] a minister and a witness that you have seen me and that you are going to see me.
I believe one of the things he received in the vision of the third heaven, which is described in 2 Corinthians 12, is about the end times, that Jesus Christ is going to be King of kings and Lord of lords and the millennial kingdom. Everything is part of that vision.
Acts 26:16-18 APNT
…you are going to see me.
“And I will deliver you from the people of the Judeans and from other Gentiles, to whom I send you,
(Then Jesus also gives them this great purpose.)
that you should open their eyes, so that they will turn from darkness to the light and from the authority of Satan to God and they will receive forgiveness of sins and a portion with the holy [ones] by faith that [is] in me.”
“that you should open their eyes.” What happened to Saul? He was blinded by a magnificent light. The light was so intense it blinded him! It was like a figure of what he would ultimately do by helping people to open their eyes, to go from darkness to light, and from the authority of Satan. Wasn’t he truly under the authority of Satan in a big way. He was full of the anger of murder! He was working for Satan’s kingdom in a to a great extent. Yet God turned him from the authority of Satan to the authority of God. Then he was able to start from that point on to impart that to others, they will receive forgiveness of sins and realize there is nothing, there is no sin that is so awful that God will not forgive it. From the very beginning, he is taught about the resurrection, about the light, about the kingdom of Satan versus the kingdom of God, and about forgiveness of sins and God’s grace and mercy.
I want to close this section with a poem that I changed a little bit to be what I wanted it to say. This poem that written by Margaret Neal; I did change it but it is about the apostles.
An enemy when God made a friend
Last to believe and first for God to send
He found life on the road to Damascus
Thrown to the ground
And raised at the same moment
A prisoner who set his captives free
A blinded man who helped the world to see
A Jew who had been perfect in the law
Blesses people of every other race
And helps them see what the apostles saw
The glory of the Lord in Jesus’ face
Strong in his weakness
Joyful in his pains
And bound by love
He freed us from our chains
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