The 2nd Telling of Paul’s Conversion (Acts 22)
Christ the lord is risen today (vs 4 & chorus)
Call to worship:
psalm 150
pastor Zachary mcguire
song:
In Christ alone
Historical reading:
Apostles creed
pastor Andrew loginow
song:
Lord have mercy
Confession & pardon:
pastor michael champoux
song:
See the Destined Day Arise
Sermon:
dr. alex loginow
Acts 22
Introduction
There should be little doubt that one of humanity’s greatest works of art ever committed to film is the late 90s/early 2000s classic: The King of Queens. Man, I love that show, easily in my top 5. I’ve seen so many episodes so many times I can quote them word-for-word. I can watch any episode any time and I will laugh out loud. Sometimes when I’m watching I will even laugh in anticipation for the joke I know is coming.
You do that too, don’t you? I mean, maybe not with King of Queens, but there are other shows, films, books, songs that you’ve consumed so often that you have them memorized. I was thinking about that as I was preparing my sermon this week because we find ourselves in the 2nd of the 3 accounts of Paul’s conversion in the book of Acts (9, 22, and 26). Isn’t it fascinating that Luke, inspired by the Holy Spirit of God was compelled to write out the Apostle Paul’s conversion narrative 3 separate times in Acts? There’s no doubt that in his journeys with St. Paul that Luke would have heard Paul recite the story countless times but Luke doesn’t merely include it as 1 pericope in this Gospel sequel, but as 3 separate pericopes.
As faithful theologians we must ask ourselves why? Why does Luke include multiple distinct accounts of the conversion of Paul? Luke is arguing for the authenticity of Paul’s apostleship, which is in question among some as we see in the epistles. So Luke does this for emphasis – Luke wants us to see that this event was important; it is the most emphasized event in Acts. Remember in the 1st century there was no caps lock, underline, or italics; no, if Luke wants to emphasize something for his audience he will do 1 of 2 things – he will either (1) write much about it, like a long pericope on a specific topic, or (2) he will repeat it multiple times. In the case of Paul’s conversion, Luke does both – he pens 3 long narratives.
Along with emphasis, another reason for St. Luke’s repetition is memorization. Because this story is so redemptive historically important Luke writes it out 3 times so that the church might hear it and read it over-and-over again. The intention is for us to be so familiar with Paul’s conversion that we can recite it almost verbatim. This would have been beneficial for the 1st century churches as Paul planted many of them and they all received his New Testament writings.
It has been important for the church for the last 2,000 years, including us today, so that we know the key moments in redemptive history, which is our history. Much like as Americans we might say, “we revolted from the British crown in 1776,” or as a Michigan football fan you might say, “we won the National Championship this year,” or as a member of Christ Community Church we can say, “we built this building in 1998.” Regardless of the degree to which you were involved in the actual event, the history of your tribe (family, country, school, team, etc.) is your history and we have no truer identity than the church. We are the family of god, the bride and body of Christ, the temple of the Holy Spirit and so redemptive history is our history. We’re going to see 4 points of application from Paul’s conversion story that help us as we continue to try to trust and obey the Lord Jesus.
Have You Benn Confronted by the Real Jesus
The 1st question we’re forced to answer from this passage is: have you been confronted by the real Jesus? Luke reminds us here for the 2nd time in Acts that Paul had been confronted by the real Jesus – as Paul was on a mission to persecute the church on the road to Damascus Paul was confronted by the resurrected and ascended Lord Jesus Christ. As we’ve noted throughout Acts much of Paul’s experience as an apostle was unique in redemptive history. Paul was an apostle, which means he was confronted and commissioned by Jesus in person. This is not what Christians have personally experienced for the last 2,000 years because there have not been any apostles since John died but there are points of similarity between Paul’s conversion and the conversion of every believer.
The most obvious and noteworthy point of connection between Paul’s conversion and the conversion of every other Christian in history, including you if you have faith, is that Paul did not choose Jesus, Jesus chose Paul. Paul was on a mission to persecute followers of Jesus. Jesus stopped Paul dead in his tracks and changed his heart and turned his life upside down. The same is true for us.
Scripture tells us that before God created the world he loved, chose, elected, predestined every Christian who would ever believe. Through his providence God brings the gospel to each of his elect. The gospel is the good news that even though we have sinned against the 1 true and holy God and we deserve eternal conscious punishment that God sent his Son to live in our place (Jesus is called the Righteous one here in Acts 22, he is the δίκαιον; Jesus lived the law-abiding, righteous life in the place of God’s elect), and Jesus died in our place for our sins, and he resurrect in the place of his church as the 1st born of the dead, which guarantees we will be resurrected too. When the elect hear the gospel God gives us the gift of faith. Faith means we know the good news, we assent to the good news (we confess it and do not deny it), and we trust in the good news. If you have knowledge, assent, and trust of Jesus that means God has given you the gift of faith.
This is how the real Jesus has confronted Christians for the last 2,000 years – through the gospel. And God’s primary way of delivering the gospel is through the Word and sacraments. The Word made flesh – Jesus of Nazareth, confronted Paul. Jesus of Nazareth confronts us through the preaching of the gospel from the Scripture every Sunday. Notice how those words were chosen carefully – it is not merely from the preaching of the Bible every Sunday that we meet Jesus, even if that preaching is expository; no, it is through the preaching of the gospel from the Scripture every Sunday that we’re confronted by Jesus. Expository preaching is essential but it falls short if we do not preach Christ from every Scripture every Sunday.
The sacraments are the 2 God-ordained pictures of the gospel that accompany the preaching of the Word. The sacraments are the signs and seals of the new covenant. Baptism and the Eucharist are the means of grace. Did you notice in verse 16 Paul was commanded to be baptized to wash away his sins? For 2 millennia the church has practiced the sacraments –some have only baptized believers, most have baptized infants of Christian families; in recent history some have used grape juice for the Lord’s Supper, most Christians throughout history have used wine, some have sinfully neglected communion only taking it monthly or quarterly, most have taken it weekly – regardless of the variations throughout history the fact is that the church has always practiced the sacraments because it is through the Word and the sacraments that we are confronted by Jesus every week.
Have You Fully Confessed Your Sin
The 2nd question we’re forced to answer from this passage is: have you fully confessed your sin? Luke makes it clear that Paul owned all his sin in detail. Paul didn’t seek to justify his sin with the fact that he thought he was doing it for God; no, he admits that that makes it worse! He persecuted Christians to death; he bound and delivered them to prison, both men and women. Paul acknowledges that he physically assaulted and imprisoned women because they believed in Jesus. Paul didn’t celebrate or skirt his sin he fully confessed it.
Did you notice that Paul even begins his speech to the Jews in Jerusalem the very same way that the deacon martyr Stephen did many years earlier? Brothers and fathers.... Paul was there that day when the church’s 1st martyr was welcomed into heaven through the stones. In fact, Luke told us in Acts 7 that Paul approved of Stephen’s murder. Paul models repentance here for us not only by owning his sins, which he does thoroughly, but also by recapitulating Stephen. Paul not only confesses his sin but he turns and goes the other way. He literally models turning the other direction by parroting the words he hated in his unbelief. He was on the wrong side of Jesus in Acts 7 and now he says what he should’ve said then.
If God has given you the gift of faith you will repent of your sin. To repent 1st means to confess your sin – this is what we did earlier (and what we do every week) as Pastor Mike led us in the confession and pardon. Repentance also means turning from your sin. Repentance does not save us, it is only the gift of faith given by God that saves, but if God has given the gift of faith it will be accompanied by repentance.
Repentance is not merely a one-time concession at conversion but repentance is a continual spiritual discipline. As we seek to practice the discipline of repentance daily listen to these attitudes and actions that demonstrate genuine repentance: (1) genuine repentance accepts full responsibility for actions and attitudes and doesn’t blame others; (2) genuine repentance recognizes the effects of actions on others and shows empathy for the pain caused; (3) genuine repentance accepts consequences without demands or conditions. This is how we try to teach our kids to practice the discipline of repentance – when you’ve sinned confess that sin, 1st and foremost to God and we usually do that by praying and asking forgiveness for the specific sin (naming which of the 10 commandments broken) and then we say the confession together. And then if you’ve sinned against another person you confess your specific sin to them and say, “I was wrong, I’m sorry, I love you, will for forgive me?” And, of course, we teach our kids to always say, “I forgive you,” because the Lord Jesus taught us to pray forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.
However you practice the disciple of repentance, however you teach your kids to practice the discipline of repentance, the important thing is that you practice the discipline of repentance. If you reflect on your own heart, your own life, and it seems that you never say you’re sorry, you never practice repentance, you should probably evaluate whether you’ve been confronted by Jesus or not. I’m not saying that every genuine believer always wants to practice repentance or that it comes easy to us but if you never say you’re sorry, if pride, arrogance, and self-righteousness are what flow from your heart, head, and hands, then I would encourage you to pray and reflect on whether you actually know Jesus because repentance is a mark of genuine faith.
Are You A Witness of Jesus
The 3rd question we must ask ourselves from this passage is: are you a witness for Jesus? Luke reminds us that when Christ confronted Paul Christ also commissioned him. We’ve already noted that Paul was called to a unique witness in redemptive history – Paul was the apostle who brought the gospel to the gentiles, planted many 1st century churches, and wrote a significant portion of the New Testament. Our witness of Jesus is not the same as Paul’s but we are still called to be a witness of Jesus.
We are called 1st and foremost to collectively be a witness of Jesus. For the last hundred years or so there has been much emphasis given to how Christians are to be witnesses of Jesus individually, and that’s true, and we’ll get to that in a minute, but the truth is that the emphasis in Scripture and throughout church history is on the church’s witness of Jesus collectively. In Matthew 28 Jesus commands the church to make disciples of all nations by baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them everything Christ commanded. In John 13 Jesus said that everyone would know that we are Jesus’ disciples by our love for one another. It is the church, not individual Christians, who possess the sacraments. The greatest witness to Jesus is the church triumphant that reign with him now in heaven and the church militant here on earth that gathers around the Word and sacraments every Sunday.
While the greatest emphasis in Scripture and throughout church history is on the church’s witness, there is certainly a sense in which each individual Christian is called to be a witness of Jesus. The most important ways that we witness to Jesus is by confessing faith in Jesus, practicing the sacraments (If you haven’t been baptized, why not?!), and rightly honoring and practicing marriage, which is a God-ordained picture of the gospel. If you confess faith in Jesus, if you join the church and practice the sacraments, if you rightly honor and practice marriage, the world will take notice and you can explain the gospel and God will do the rest. We witness to Jesus through our words, thoughts, and deeds and most importantly through the church.
Leverage for the Kingdom
Not only do we witness to Jesus but we leverage all that we have for Jesus and that’s the 4th question this pericope begs: do you leverage what you have for Jesus? After Paul finished his speech Luke tells us Paul leveraged his Roman citizenship for the Kingdom of Christ. In God’s providence Paul had acquired Roman citizenship by birth. Theologians speculate as to how this happened.
NT Wright notes that Antony had granted some Jews citizenship after they helped him in his campaign in the middle of the 1st century BC. Further back there is evidence of some Jews in Tarsus having citizenship in the 170s BC so it’s possible that Paul’s grandfather may have even inherited this citizenship and it was passed on. Either way this Roman citizenship awarded him certain privileges and here Paul uses it to get 1 step closer to Rome. Are you leveraging what God has given you for Jesus?
Every one of us has time, treasure, and talents give to us by God. We all have the same amount of time but have to allocate it differently based on our jobs, marriages, kids, etc. Regardless of these factors you must leverage your time for Jesus. Every one of us has to think through how we use our time for work, family, and leisure but if you’re not thinking through all of those things in light of Jesus, you’re doing it wrong.
We all have differing amounts of treasure, money, wealth. God has blessed some of you with much wealth. Others may have much less. Regardless of how much treasure/money/wealth you have, God has given it to you and you must leverage it for his kingdom. If you don’t give to the church you’re robbing God. If you don’t think about your money and how to leverage it for Jesus, you’re doing it wrong.
We all have differing talents/gifts/abilities. God gifts us differently spiritually, he gifts us differently physically, intellectually, emotionally, athletically, musically. Some of you can fix anything in the world; some of you have a heart and gift with kids or the elderly; some are gifted teachers, others are gifted counselors, or administrators. Some gifts feel like they come naturally; others have been developed over years of discipline. Regardless of the details, we all have talents/gifts/abilities from God and if you’re not leveraging them for Jesus you’re doing it wrong.
Conclusion
You know this isn’t the last time we’re gonna hear the story of Paul’s conversion. When we get to Acts 26 Luke is going to tell it to us again. I hope when we get through Acts 26 Christ Community Church is so familiar with Paul’s conversion that we could all tell the story in our own words. I hope when we get there you give thought once again as to (1) whether you’ve been confronted by the real Jesus, and (2) whether you’re fully confessing your sin, and (3) whether you witness to Jesus, and (4) whether you’re leveraging everything for Jesus. And I hope that regardless of what you think of The King of Queens that this morning your heart is captivated by the King of Kings.