Murderer Transformed - Live from South Africa Acts 9:1-8

Thank you so much for joining us. As we take a look at the book of Acts, we take things nice and slowly. As we look and see what God is doing in the big picture of expanding the gospel from Jerusalem to Judea and to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. My name is David Humphrey, and I'm the pastoral care admissions pastor here at United City Church in Umber, Texas. We're excited to be your church family while you're incarcerated, but we're gonna be even more excited when you get out and you can come and be a part of our church in person. We love you very much. Please grab your Bible and a journal, perhaps a pen, and be ready to take some notes and let's learn together through the book of Acts. - Hi. Hey guys, greetings from South Africa. Can you believe this? Here we are trying something a little different. Filming from here today, Lane and Montega and I are on a vision trip with another brother, Ken. And we're here checking out some future missions work that we're gonna be doing here. And so I decided this would be a really cool way to number one share with you a little bit about where we are. And also mostly just to talk about God's word from Acts chapter nine.

That's where we're gonna be tonight. Of course, you probably know that Lane is our missions resident. Montega is our student pastor. And so these guys are pretty interested in the topic of today. And I wanna ask you a question first that nobody's gonna answer out loud. And then we're gonna have a couple of little questions that we're gonna talk about together. This first one, this might be something maybe you don't wanna say out loud. The question is this, who is it hard for you to imagine being saved? All of us have probably got somebody in mind. You may not wanna admit it, 'cause it's kind of hard to think about while it really is kind of hard to think about that person being saved. But that's really what the story is about tonight is somebody pretty difficult to imagine. So why would you guys say that it is difficult for us to imagine some people ever being saved? - Yeah, and I think it's tough because you have people that you walk through in life or even hear stories about that have just done a ton. And so I think the first part is, it's not the question of can they be saved? I think the question is more, are they gonna be receptive to being saved?

- Yeah. - In the sense that you have people who've walked through life and maybe they've been so turned off. - Ten church or so turned off from the gospel that they go a complete opposite way. And then when somebody tries to administer them or bring them to them, like I think they've already decided their miles that they wanna know part. And I think that is the difficult part, but I think that's also why it's important, relationships are important. Like you hear all the time, the gospel moves up to speed of relationships, right? So you build relationships with people and they maybe open the door for them to wanna hear you out. But I think the first part of it is just dealing with somebody who's just maybe so turned off from just being in church in general. - I think it's really cool. - Yep, it is. - Lionel, what about you? Why do you think it's hard for us to imagine some people ever being saved? - I think the big thing is, for me is when I walk with people for a good little bit. - Yeah. - And there's been no either interest or forward progress or desire than that?

- Yep. - And then the second thing would be as I've gone and talked to people in a bunch of different countries in a bunch of different contexts, there's people who have just no desire for to better themselves. And they're cool where they're at. They're cool in the monotony or the depression or whatever it is. And they've just gotten comfortable. - Yeah, so. - Yeah, I think it's always a reminder that I mean, this is spiritual work, right? You know, like leading up, I can convince anybody to be saved. It's never anything like that. It's always a work of the Holy Spirit. But Landier would tell us about a story of this guy that was like a super unlikely to be saved. Tell us a little bit about that again. - Yeah, so it was a while ago. I was still my dad. He introduced me to this guy named Arthur. So Arthur was involved in a car jacket when he was 18 and then he had some prison. He had ended up killing the guy there like during the car jacket. But long story short, while he was in prison, he got to be known as the worst inmate in the Texas prison system,

which is not a title that you wanna have. He ended up in solitary confinement. - That's pretty bad. - So, skip forward a little bit. He ends up giving his life to Christ and can entirely turn a situation around. He should have never gotten out of prison from the things he's done in prison and out. - Yeah. - He ended up getting parole and then starting in prison ministry. - Yeah. - And now leads a super successful, very large ministry guy. I guarantee you, there's some people that would have looked at his story and went, probably not him. - Yes. - You know, and I will say honestly, though being able to do a lot of prison ministry, it's reminded me all the time. Because anybody can be saved the gospel is for everybody. So I want to kind of remind us where we are on the on the trajectory of things Of course, we've been spending the first eight chapters of the book of acts watching Jesus commission the apostles sending them out with the Holy Spirit Filling them with power to be his witnesses. They've already been his witnesses in Jerusalem in Judea in Samaria We started we spent a couple of weeks talking about the Philip and the Ethiopian unit, which is Just a crazy story. It's like God was Telling the gospel to the ends of the earth even faster than the apostles could could even literally get there And so we were we talked about how God sent Philip on this appointment with this unit from Ethiopia kind of interesting here We are in Africa But as an Ethiopian story and so God sent God sent Philip on that appointment while this Ethiopian was on his way back from Jerusalem Where he'd been worshiping God?

That's all kind of puzzling the whole thing is pretty amazing if you haven't watched it yet You can watch the last two episodes. We talk a lot about that But it also reminds us that God was going to save the Gentiles So Lane what what made the unit unlikely to be saved? I first and foremost it came from Ethiopia, which is not where the gospel or that's really had been preached And then second like he he was a unit. Yep Which is a big deal He would not have been the first candidate that people would have been looking for to share the gospel with and most likely would have been Yep, something like that. Yep, but God picked him God said this is one that we want I'm gonna send the gospel to him sent Philip. Obviously the unit accepted Christ he was baptized and Then we had the crazy We don't know if he was teleported or what happened with Philip, but suddenly Phillips out of there and he finds himself in a zotas Continuing on and it says of course that the Ethiopian unit was just joyful on his way and I've just Used in my gospel imagination. I'm just imagining him sharing what had happened with him back with Queen Candice and just the whole thing so we don't really know all the story of that But what we one thing we do know if you fast-forward in history is that there was actually a time when Ethiopia was a Christian nation And and so the roots of the gospel go really far back in the nation of Ethiopia And many would say perhaps he was that pioneer missionary with that anyway as we jump in today We're gonna actually be looking at Acts chapter 9 versus 1 through 9 in the story of somebody who was Super unlikely to be saved. We already got a little intro to him a couple of chapters together But we'll talk about that in a minute. I'll take it would you read Acts chapter 9 1 through 9 4 so sure will The Saul still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord went to the Haapreach And asked him for letters to the synagogue at Damascus So 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 fallen to the ground He heard a voice saying to him saw saw why are you persecuting me?

And he said who are you Lord? And he said I am Jesus who you're persecuting but rise and enter the city and you'll be told what you're to do The men who were traveling with him stood speechless here in the voice saying no one saw rose from the ground and although his eyes were open He saw nothing so they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus And for three days he was without sight and you ate and would drink Wow, okay. Well, there's a ton to unpack and I don't know how far we'll get on this But we know a little bit about Saul from the book of Acts already. We got a little introduction to him By Luke in chapter 8 You may remember that in chapter 8 verse 1 while the first martyr Stephen is being stoned It says that Saul approved of his execution so Saul was already Very much in favor of let's get rid of these Christians He was involved in ravaging the church chapter 8 verse 3 says and Entering house after house dragging off men and women and committing them to prison. I Would say that's about his anti-caustable of a person as as you can come up with so Here's here's where we come to the come to the scripture here is when you get here We look at chapter 9 in verse 1 This guy is literally the only persecutor described by name There were others who were coming against the Christians, but nobody else is described by name like the apostle with not the apostle yet I'm fast-forwarding we guys we know where this is headed this guy's the only one and this guy is brutal He is threatening and and even threatening murder. So he goes to the high priest that would authorize him to bring any and all who belonged to the way bound to Jerusalem. Now, why do you think they called it the way, the people who were followers? - That's a good question. I mean, I think you hear it in scripture, even when the Bible's talking about saving me, even Jesus is tempted like the devil knows scripture. - Oh, for sure.

- So even the ones that are persecuting the, know who Jesus is, they know scripture, they know what's going on. It's obviously, it's just a call back to John. Jesus calls himself the way the truth in the life. I think it's a direct, a direct reference to that. - I think it's gotta be. It's interesting that they called themselves, they were calling the believers the way. They're like, okay, well, they're following the way and they're going the wrong way in their mind. But I thought it was also interesting that he went to the high priest to get this letter. Number one, Paul's known for writing letters. Obviously a good part of the New Testament are letters from Paul, but this is not Paul. This is Saul. This is this is BC before Christ, you might call it. And so he's going to the high priest, like the top religious official to get authorization to go to the synagogues at Damascus so that he could go and bring anyone who belonged to the way bound to Jerusalem. This guy is just trying to tear it down as fast as he can. And it's quite a quite a mess. So Saul didn't want anything more at this moment than to kill the movement. And if you've read ahead, and a lot of us probably who are listening to this have, we know this is the same guy

who very few would refute the fact that next to Jesus Christ, this is the guy is second in line that's having the most influence on the Christian faith in all of history. There is no theologian that matches him. There's no preacher, there's no evangelist, nothing like that. So I guess a couple of things that I sort of think about is is there anyone on the planet earth that is too far that they can't be saved? What do you think, Lane? No, isn't that funny that we actually even have like a hesitate moment when we ask that question? Because it's like our brains are trying to catch up with, oh yeah, no, anybody can be saved. Right. And so I think we all as Christians, we tend to know the right answer to that. But I want us actually to become a little bit more convinced by the passage when we're looking at the people in our neighborhood, the people that we interact with. And so what do you think we can do to counter our cynicism and disbelief in this whole idea? We just said, oh yeah, anybody can be saved. So how can we counter our cynicism? I think one just getting to know people and talking and being willing to hear everybody's story. I think it's easy to make a judgment about somebody based off what you see.

Obviously, maybe what you hear, maybe you got a neighbor or you might hear them in the backyard or in the front yard, cousin or persona or something like that. But I think it's important to build relationships with people that know what their light was like one, the freedom at them. And then two, what's just going on in their life now? I think that changes your perspective a little bit. I mean, obviously, I mean, the Bible says, we look at the outside, but God knows the heart. And so I think, yeah, sure about what we see on the outside and about how people act and treat other people, like you can make one judgment call, but one, it's not our call to make in the first place. But then two, you just never know what people truly have going on or dealing with. Probably more than likely will change everybody's perspective on that person if they knew that story. That's right. What do you think, Lane? How do you counter the cynicism? I think you actually have to understand nature of sin and that it's all the same at the end of the day. Doesn't matter how what you've done or what they've done, it's you're all in the same boat no matter where you're at. Yeah. 'Cause a lot of times we're like, I'm bad, but I'm not that bad. And that is false. Yeah.

'Cause we get to that. I've done this 'cause I haven't killed anybody here. Like, I haven't done this, I haven't done that. But it doesn't matter 'cause you're all guilty and inside of God. And we like to throw our stuff under the rug and put fingers about people instead of come to terms with the fact that we all actually deserve power. Yeah. I couldn't agree more. I always, it helps me when I remember stories of people who like people in my life who I would have not pictured. It reminds me, oh yeah, the next person, that person I meet who's really angry or, you know, this relative or whoever it is on the street, somebody that might be a difficult person, I'm like, they're not outside the reach of the Holy Spirit of God. It helps me when I think about, if you turn to the Bible and you literally ask the question, who can be saved? I mean, the Bible gives the clearest answer, whoever calls on the name of the Lord can be saved. And whoever means whoever, right, that's anybody. So anybody can be saved. And I want also, I think it might be helpful for all of us to sort of think about before we keep going in the life of Paul for a minute, who have you given up praying for? Because you're just like, sometimes we just kind of lose hope in a certain person. And that's hard to admit, but I know I've had people on my prayer list for a long time that then they just kind of, they sort of slide off. And it's not because they got saved, it's just because I just got tired, you know, just like, wow. But I just want the story of Saul, I think it's one of the reasons why it's in the Bible, frankly, and why God chose somebody like Saul to be so used to him is as a reminder that whoever calls on the name of the Lord can be saved.

And then I think about, I wonder who before Saul came to Christ, was there anybody that knew him that started praying for him? Now the Bible doesn't say it, but what do you guys think? I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility. Yeah. It's definitely, definitely could have happened. I just think it's kind of a cool thought. Was there some of the early believers that were like, we need to spend some prayer time? I wouldn't bet they would say at least make him stop. Yeah, would you at least hold it back? Yeah, I mean, I think the interesting part two is, is like, I think just the story of Saul is one of the first times, I mean, maybe even outside of Jesus' crucifixion that Romans 839 is like, can you see it play out? Obviously. Okay. Three people got turned forgetting. Perfect. Because like, even like just the chapter earlier in Acts 8, you know, Saul is again persecuting, leveraging the church, he approved of Stephen's stoning, and really like, he was the one that said, hey, yeah, go ahead and what he thought was going to snuff out the gospel and the advancement of it because Stephen was so respected was what really caused it to, you know, to really take off the way that it could be. Yeah. Following that. So I think even like somebody praying and maybe like Lane said, somebody's praying that he would stop, like, I think God's definitely possible with it. But maybe even praying of his dude means Jesus in a radical way the same way that we pray for people. Yeah. Yeah.

I just, you guys know, those who watch this and who are in this, you know that we like to use our imagination. Because I think sometimes it's not, we're not trying to add a scripture or take away from scripture ever, but there's so many things within the scripture that we just don't have the specifics. We just don't have that information. I just, I just want to believe that there was a group that said, let's start praying for Saul. It's probably somebody was like, you're crazy. That guy's never going to, that guy will never be. Because when you, when you fast forward in the story, once he does get saved, what happens? The church leaders are not like, oh man, this is awesome. Come on, enjoy this. They're like, I am scared to death. This guy, I think he's faking it because he's, he's just going to try to take us all to prison. So I think it's, it's kind of an interesting story if you look at it that way. So, I mean, this guy literally, you know, he's on his way and I also find it interesting that Saul was on his way to do something completely opposite. He was going to oppose, he was going to try to take them to jail. And yet that is where Jesus encountered him. And, and I think it's, I just, the whole story is, is so dramatic because you've got Saul headed and then a light from heaven shown around him and he heard a voice. And the voice said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Now I think it's interesting. The voice could have said, Saul, why are you taking such issue with my people? But that's not what Jesus said. Jesus says, "Saul, why are you persecuting God?" never laid a hand on Jesus? That's a really big question. What do you think, like? I mean, my immediate thought is that I think that it's about Christ. Yeah. It's not just

about the people. It's about the movement that he's against in the movement, that this guy that asked me probably all reality. He's like, it was Chris Five's died. I mean, these random people were causing electives in the religious community. Yeah. And saying he's come back and we're against that part of it more than eating just the people. Yeah. Yeah. It reminds me of when Jesus said during his ministry, whatever you've done to the least of these you've done to me. All right. This is my take on it. I think Jesus is identifying himself with the church saying, Hey, how you're treating them, you're actually treating me. And I'm serious about that. You can as far as when he told the disciple, it personally to me. Yeah. Yeah. So he had told them to expect it. But I think that's what he's doing here. I think he's identifying with the church and the movement, like you said, it's not just the movement of the people, right? It's, it's his movement. And, and so he, he just goes straight at it. Look, I don't, I'm not worried about you persecuting them. You're actually persecuting me. And, and that's what's happening when you're doing this. And it, it's so interesting because the Saul's response, who are you Lord? I find that a super interesting response. It's like, I think you recognize this is something from heaven, right? But, but like, what's, what's going on? And then Jesus goes straight at it. I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. There it is. There is Jesus just identifying himself with his people. And, and so, you know, we talk about the persecution that happens around the world today and, and also the fact that most of us, I don't know, maybe there's some there here in this that go through persecution, but most of us frankly have never been through much persecution. I mean, I've had people laugh at me before. I've had people not want to talk or whatever, but I don't know what persecution is. Do you know what persecution is? I want to tell you, you know, I think people, I think Christians today know what opposition opposition, but persecution and opposition to their, yeah, yeah, just because somebody gets mad at you for sharing the gospel doesn't mean that you push. No, no, yeah, we got a pretty low pain tolerance. I'm afraid when it comes to persecution, because I mean, obviously, I don't know anybody who's been drug away, you know, to jail in the United States for, for sharing the message of Christ. Now I've got friends around the world who've had some of those experiences, but so far in our country, that's not our experience. It could be one day. There's no promises that it won't be, but, but I think it's just pretty interesting that Jesus says, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. And but then Jesus actually gives him a plan of a little bit

about what's coming next. So he tells him he says, rise and enter the city. And then you're going to be told what you were to do. That doesn't sound very descriptive. Just go to the city, and then you're going to know what to do. What was the problem with him rising at this point? You can see? Yeah, he's blind. So I think there was an old song blinded by the light, right? I mean, that's what I know, right? It's pretty bad one. But I mean, hey, I must have gotten it from here, right? I mean, listen, he literally is blinded. His friends are having to pick him up. It says that that the guys who are with him, they were standing there speechless because they heard the voice, but they saw no one. What I don't know is it does text doesn't say it. So I'm just going to guess that Saul also saw no one. Okay, but it doesn't say that he didn't. It just says that those guys didn't. If you're also wondering why we're tired, we're over here yawning because we we've been on 24 hours just about a plane flight and we've reached the afternoon. So guys, we're tired. Hang here with us. We got just a few more minutes. We're going to, we're going to kind of pull this together here. But look, so it says now that Saul stood rose from the ground and although his eyes were opened, he could see nothing. Can I say something please do? Yeah, please do. What is it? Is verse five? Yeah. And he says, where are you lowered? I just had to look it up because I bought it. Yeah, I have some significant. If you look at that, lowered is capital L. Yeah. Obviously, we see lowered. We're in three or some ways in the Bible. which is like a Hebrew translation for Yahweh, they believe was too sacred to say. And then you have capital L, lowercase ORD, which was like a more, kind of respectful, but more often spoken name of God. And obviously all lowercase, lower was essentially just like a teacher. - Yeah. - That's true. - Yeah. - And I saw saying Lord and the Bible being specific to you is that spelling.

I think it's really important too. - Yeah. - 'Cause again, going back to what I said before, where the enemy knows scripture and knows, you know, knows the Bible, he knows the steps just as much as those who read it, dude. I think Saul responding that way knew exactly if he was talking, turning the line. Just by the letter he responded. But probably the way you say you like to use your imagination, I like to use mine too, because I think Saul, Saul is probably waiting for the moment. But God was gonna be like, "All right, bro, what are you doing?" He was just waiting for the pin to drop and for God to be like, "All right, enough is a mouth, and I'm just gonna deal with you right now." And I think that moment, he probably had a thought, like, "All right, this is it, this is the moment God knew was gonna happen." Was kind of getting to know when it was. But I think that, I mean, it's like that use of Lord in this context, I think it's really good point. I like that. I also like this whole idea with the fact that his eyes were opened, but he saw nothing. To me, that is a helpful reminder of the lost, right? Their eyes are open. They may even be and often are in the church, right? You know, they're around, they can see some things

except they're blind. And so we can't expect someone who is blind to be able to see without an intervention, you know? So God struck Saul literally physically blind. In one moment, he could see the next moment, he couldn't see. But I think that is a reminder to the condition of a person who is spiritually lost. 'Cause it's like they're just blind, they just can't see. Like, I don't need to fault them for being blind. - Yeah. - Do you think the guys that were with Saul, do you think they saw the light too? - Well, it doesn't say, and they were not struck blind. Because it says they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus. So that makes me think perhaps they didn't see the light, but we know they heard the voice, which is probably trickier than not. - Right. - Not to have any context of what's going on. - Who are you? - It's like what's going on, right? But you know, the voice also just reminds me, of course, like going back to Jesus, remember when the voice came out of heaven? A couple of times for Jesus, right, at his baptism, you know, when he says, "This is my beloved son, "who my love with him, I'm well pleased." And then of course, again, at the, at the amount of transfiguration, you know?

So I just think there are times when Jesus speaks, or of course those were the fathers speaking out of heaven. And now we've got Jesus speaking out of heaven to one of the servants who is going to look back on this moment for the rest of his ministry. Like when this guy was writing the letter to the Romans, you know he was writing it through the lens of this moment. He remembers being spiritually blind, and he remembers when the scales fell off, which of course is gonna be down the road with the story. But I think that's super, super helpful. I also like it, and, you know, I'm a pastor so I can over-spiritualize things pretty well. They led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. Now these guys, obviously, there's no evidence at all that those guys have were believers, right? But he did have a hand getting from place to place. So I'm not trying to over-spiritualize that, but I do find that kind of interesting. God sent him some helpers to get him where he goes, but then three days, the guy is blind, and it says he didn't eat or drink. Now, what was that all about? He's on a serious fast. - He's got some serious fast. - Or he just can't get anywhere in Damascus. (laughing) - He's like, you can't get, maybe those guys just like, hey, peace out, we're not gonna, we're not gonna. Yeah, this is kind of scary.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - So I kind of wonder if it is some sort of a, like he's trying to understand spiritually what happened. I don't know, I don't have the answer to that, but what we do know is there's a lot more to the story it's going to have an awful lot to do with this guy and the things that are coming. So, I want to encourage you, those of you that are in the room, you're going to get some discussion questions to talk about. But one of those discussion questions that I want you to talk about as a group is, it's this whole idea of what Christian do you know who would have been the least likely person you could have imagined being saved. I think it's helpful to remind each other of this person you know, he just never would have thought he would have come to Christ. And then he did that to me telling those testimonies, it is helpful to remind us whoever calls on the name of the Lord can be saved. That drug addict who calls on the name of the Lord can be saved, right? That person involved in whatever sinful practice they all can be. And then I want you to also answer the questions if you're watching this on your tablet and you can sit down with some of your other buddies asking the same question that we asked here. What can we do to counter our cynicism and disbelief about who can and who can't be saved? Because none of us who knows the Bible is going to say, well, no, this person can't be saved. We're not going to say that. But we live like that. So our actions and my actions speak louder than my words. So even though I know whoever calls on the name of the word can be saved, what do I need to do and what do you need to do? So talk about that with your friends to counter that cynicism that we have. And then the last question that I want us to talk about a little bit is, who have you given up on that you need to begin praying for again? Somebody that feels too far gone, but they're not. I promise you, if Saul can be saved and not just save, guys, this guy goes on to be used of God. We ought to be praying prayers for the lost around us, the people that are least likely in our minds, but we ought to pray not just for them to be saved, but for them to serve God with their whole lives and to be used of God. I want to finish just with another story similar to the one that Lane told of a good buddy of mine. And his name is Jeff. And some of you at our church would even know Jeff. Jeff spent multiple prison terms. Jeff would have been the least likely person to come to Christ. But once Jeff gave his life to Christ, once he finally got

to the end of himself, now he is one of the strongest men of God that I know. He is a servant in our church. He leads other men to Christ does prison ministry, just like Arthur. I'm telling you, there's nobody that's too far. And so let the story of Saul be that reminder for you. Thank you so much for joining us. We hope that this works. We're going to try to upload it in just a minute. It should be a lot of fun. Look forward to seeing you when we get back telling you some stories about the lions and all the stuff that we're going to hopefully get to see this afternoon as we head on safari. And we appreciate your prayers. God bless you and have a good one. Thanks again for joining us verse by verse through the book of Acts. I hope that you have learned a lot more importantly. I hope that you'll apply these things to your life this week. Share it with a friend. Great thing for you to just have some discussion with the other people around you. Share the things that God is doing in your life. Again, remember the Bible is a book about God far more than it is a book about us. So let's learn about him. Let's grow to love him more and more. Here at United City, this is not the only thing that we have on the Pando app. We would love for you to follow some of our other content. Watch some of our worship services along with the music and the messages as well as podcasts. We've got a lot of great content. We would love for you to follow that. Also, if you would like to be in touch with us here at United City, the best way to do that is by writing us a letter. You can address that to prison ministry at United City Church. 1 9 9 0 1 Townsend Boulevard, Umber, Texas, 7 7 3 3 8. We'll read that. We'll pray for you and somebody will write you back. God bless you and we'll see you in the Word. [BLANK_AUDIO]