Introduction
Please look at your Bibles in Acts 7. I want you to think
about a question that is asked of historians every few years in our nation.
Every few years, a survey has taken of historians in America asking them the
question who was the greatest president of all time, the greatest president in
the history of the United States, and guess who usually comes in at the very top
of the list. You probably guessed it, Abraham Lincoln.
Abraham Lincoln usually is voted by historians as being the
greatest president in the history of our nation. As much as the Civil War tore
our country apart, it really could have been much, much worse if we had not had
such a strong, godly leader in the White House, Abraham Lincoln was a very
effective and successful president, and we would tend to think that his success
as President was the culmination of a very successful career.
However, if you study the life of Abraham Lincoln, you
discover quite the opposite. Surprisingly, Abraham Lincoln had almost no formal
schooling, and at the age of 22 he went into business but failed. A year later,
he ran for Illinois General Assembly, and he lost. He then applied to law
school, but he was laughed out of the room because he had almost no formal
schooling. They thought he was nuts about applying for law school.
Well, he started another business that failed and led him to
file for bankruptcy. He spent the next 17 years paying off his debt. In 1843,
he ran for Congress and lost. In 1854 he ran for the US Senate and lost. In 1856,
he sought the vice-presidential nomination at his party's National Convention, but
he was blown out of the water, and in 1858 he ran for the US Senate, and he
lost again. So, they're in 1858, if you had predicted that Abraham Lincoln in
two years would not only go on to become the next President of the United
States, but would also become the most effective, greatest President of the
United States, people would have thought you were nuts. You are not rowing with
both oars in the water. You are not rowing with both orders in the water. You
are a Taco shy of a combo plate. They would have thought you were insane. There
is no way that Abraham Lincoln could be elected president. No way that he could
become the greatest of all time. It just could not happen. In the year
following Jesus's ascension into heaven, people would have said much the same
thing about a young man named Saul.
Saul, the surprise transformation of a man.
If you had told the people of Jerusalem that the young hotheaded
Pharisee, known as Saul, was going to become a Christian, they would have
called you delusional. And if you had gone on to tell them that not only would
he become a Christian, but he would go on to write almost half the books of the
New Testament and become the most influential Christian in the history of
Christianity, they would have thought you were crazy. Not a chance. Not Saul.
No way, no how. They would have thought you were a lunatic if you had made that
prediction.
I am excited to launch this study of the life of Paul. We
will open God's word together and examine the life of the man who was quite
possibly the greatest Christian leader who has ever lived. I want you to think
about it. When the Christian Church was still in its infancy, he planted
churches in over a dozen cities on two different continents and of the 27 books
in the New Testament, he wrote 13 of them, including the Magna Carta of the New
Testament, the Book of Romans. Peter, James and John were all great
apostles, but the apostle Paul overshadowed them all, even though he was in his
early years, the most unlikely man on the planet to become a Christian. So, I'm
calling this study the 1st in this life of Paul series Paul, BC the most
unlikely Christian.
Look in your Bibles at Acts 7. In just a few moments,
we'll begin in verse 51. But let me kind of set the backdrop for you. In the
early years of acts in the early years of Christianity, most of the Christians
were in Jerusalem, especially in the early months of that first year. There
were Christians, a few of them outside of Jerusalem, because on the very first
day of the church on the day of Pentecost, 3000 were baptized and a number of
those went back to their hometowns and told people about Jesus. But as the
months went on in that first year of Christianity, most Christians on the
planet were still there in Jerusalem. A lot happens in those early years that
we read about in the first 6 or 7 chapters of the book of Acts.
In Acts 6 in those early verses of that chapter, we read
about a significant event in the early Jerusalem Church. We find out that
there in that first year after the church was born, most Christians on the
planet were being ministered to there in Jerusalem. They were being ministered
to by the 12 apostles. There got to be so many Christians the apostles couldn't
do all the work of ministry themselves. So, there early in Acts 6, they select 7 godly men
who they designate to become deacons in the church. These godly men were wise.
It says, they were full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, and they could be
entrusted to oversee the church's ministry, particularly the church's ministry
to widows.
One of these deacons was named Stephen. According to Acts 6:5,
he was a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, according to Acts 6:8, he
was a man full of God's grace and power, and he did great wonders and
miraculous signs among the people. Unfortunately, many of the Jews didn't like
Stephen very much. They didn't like him preaching so boldly about Jesus. They
didn't like him, upstaging them by doing all these miracles So, many Jews wanted to get rid of Stephen, they
hated the guy's guts. We read in Acts 6:11, they secretly persuaded some men to
say we have heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against
God. Of course, these words weren't true. They pulled him out of thin air. They
just wanted to drum up some false accusations so they could drag him before the
Sanhedrin. The Jewish Supreme Court and have him convicted, hopefully killed,
but at least in prison.
Well, one thing led to another. They end up seizing Stephen.
They force him to stand before the Jewish High Council that Sanhedrin. Acts 7
records Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin. Interestingly, it's not much of a
defense, Stephen just takes the opportunity to preach a great sermon. He takes
them back to father Abraham and gives them in a quick synopsis of the history of the Jewish people in
the Old Testament. He continued how God had moved and worked through his people
of Israel. He gives this powerful sermon. And as he gets to the end of that
sermon, we're going to pick up here in Acts 7:51, as Stephen is bringing his
sermon to a close as he's standing before the Sanhedrin. May God bless
us as we study his word over the next few minutes together.
51“You stubborn people! You are
heathenl at
heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That’s
what your ancestors did, and so do you! 52Name one prophet your ancestors
didn’t persecute! They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the
Righteous One—the Messiah whom you betrayed and murdered. 53You deliberately disobeyed God’s law,
even though you received it from the hands of angels.”
54The Jewish leaders were infuriated
by Stephen’s accusation, and they shook their fists at him in rage. 55But Stephen, full of the Holy
Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus
standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 56And he told them, “Look, I see the
heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God’s right
hand!”
57Then they put their hands over
their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him 58and dragged him out of the city and
began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet
of a young man named Saul.
59As they stoned him, Stephen prayed,
“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60He fell to his knees, shouting,
“Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died.
1Saul was one of the witnesses, and
he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen.
Persecution
Scatters the Believers
A
great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in
Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the
regions of Judea and Samaria. 2(Some
devout men came and buried Stephen with great mourning.) 3But Saul was going everywhere to
destroy the church. He went from house to house, dragging out both men and
women to throw them into prison.
Notice the
position of Jesus in verse 55. We know that when Jesus ascended into
heaven, Scripture says that he was sitting at the right hand of God. But in
this moment, Jesus stands up to welcome home Stephen who's going to be
the man who's going to become the very first Christian martyr. Stephen, was the
first Christian to be killed for his faith in Jesus Christ. Long before any of
the 12 apostles were killed for their faith, Stephen was put to death. It
wasn't even a legal execution. The Romans, remember, had taken away Jewish
authority to carry out capital punishment on any fellow Jews. They didn't have
that authority. That's why when Jesus was arrested, the Jewish leaders had to
take them before governor Pilot because they couldn't crucify him without Roman
permission. So, what's happening here is
basically a backyard lynching. The Sanhedrin, and the mob, they have no
authority to execute. But they did it anyway. They took him out to a back
alley. They picked up rocks and they threw him at his head until he bled out
and died.
Here the Jewish Sanhedrin doesn't seek Roman permission to
kill Stephen, and they simply threw him to the crowd. They threw him to the mob
and let them have their way with Stephen as they stood back and cheered them
on. And who was it who was standing there as the number one cheerleader for
this mob, that killed Stephen? Well, Acts 7:58, it was a young man named Saul.
Now Saul is the Hebrew name of the man we know as Paul. So ‘Saul’
or “Paul” in the book of Acts, it's the same man. Saul is the Hebrew name, and Paul
is the Greek name. Same guy. So, there
he is, the witnesses it says put their cloaks or their coats at his feet. Now,
who are the witnesses? Those that were the ones that came forward and accused
Stephen of doing things they knew full well he hadn't done. According to Old
Testament law, if you were a witness in a capital offense and the person was
found guilty and was going to be stoned to death, it was the witnesses who were
responsible to pick up the rocks and be the first to throw them at that guy's
head. Because you know what? That's going to verify you're telling the truth.
If you're going to be responsible for picking up the rocks and actually killing
the guy. But these guys were so wicked, so to depraved, they didn't care that
they had lied, and they were still throwing rocks at his head. So here these
witnesses were those that were going to be the first to pick up the rocks and
stone Stephen. They laid their cloaks at Saul's feet. Evidently, there were some
pickpockets in the crowd and they didn't want their cloaks stolen. So there had
to be someone watching them. And Saul says I'll happily do it and I'm going to
cheer you on as you stoned Stephen to death.
The first time we read about Paul in the Bible, isn't it
remarkable he's not sharing the gospel. He's not talking about how great Jesus
is. He's not even in a synagogue. The first time we hear of Paul is in the New
Testament. He's there, giving his applause to those who are murdering the first
Christian martyr. And in case there's any doubt in our minds about whether or
not Paul approved of this lynching, we're told very plainly in Acts 8:1, Saul
was there giving approval to his death. He was saying I support Stephen's
arrest, I support the witnesses, trumped up charges against him. I support the
verdict of the "Kangaroo court". And I fully support what those men did to that no-good
piece of filth when they cracked his skull open and let him die in the street.
I supported it 100%. Look with me at how verse one is translated in a few
different Bible translations. First of all, the ESV says it this way. Saul
approved of Stephen’s execution. How about the Holman Christian Standard
version? It says it this way. Saul agreed with putting him to death. How about
the Living Bible goes on to say Paul was in complete agreement with the killing
of Stephen, and then The Message more times than not, the message gives us a
paraphrase. It says it this way. Saul was right there congratulating the
killers. The great Apostle Paul, this is how we're introduced to him. He's a
murderer. He's cheering him on. He's supporting him. He doesn't stand up for
Stephen. He doesn't say. Wait a minute. These charges were bogus. He's right
there supporting the whole thing. He must have. He might as well have picked up
the rocks himself and throwing them at Stephen. Stephen's blood splattered on the
ground next to Saul's feet and he developed from this point forward a thirst
for Christian blood. Because look at what we read in verse three, Saul began to
destroy the church. Now the word destroy is very significant in the original
Greek, this word destroys the translation of a Greek word that was used to
describe a wild animal mangling its prey. So, Saul was like a bloodthirsty wolf
who wanted to mangle Christians. The English standard version, and the Holman
Christian Standard, both translate this part of the verse this way. Saul was
ravaging the church; he was ravaging the church and look at how it said in the Living
Bible. It reads Paul was like a wild man going everywhere to devastate
believers.
Well, he's going from house to house. He's dragging off men
and women and putting them in prison because of their Roman occupiers, the
Jewish Sanhedrin was limited in what they could do. To apprehend and punish
these Christians. But Saul wasn't technically a member of the Sanhedrin. He
wasn't a part of the 70. We're going to find out later that he was closely
connected with the Sanhedrin, but he wasn't part of them technically, so he was
able to do what they weren't able to do legally. He was their bulldog. He was
their mob hitman. He was the guy that could do the dirty work for them. The
Sanhedrin wanted the Christians in town to shut up. Saul wanted them to shut up
even more. The Sanhedrin wanted Christian men to be arrested, but Saul wasn't
satisfied with just arresting men, so he arrested women too. The Sanhedrin
wanted the Christian ringleaders. Saul wanted them dead even more. The
Sanhedrin hated Christians. But make no mistake about it. Saul hated Christians
even more. And we asked the question why? Why did he hate Christians so much?
Well, Saul hated Christians with a passion because from the
bottom of his heart, Saul hated Jesus Christ. Let that sink in, Saul. Hated
Jesus Christ. He hated Jesus so much that he set out on a mission to eradicate
the name of Jesus not only from the lips of Christians in Jerusalem, but from
the lips of Christians around the world.
So, who was this wild man's soul? And why did he hate Jesus
and his followers so much?
Well, let's take a closer look at what Paul himself reveals
as he gives a bit of an autobiography later in the book of Acts and later in
his epistles in the New Testament. In the book of Acts and in the epistles,
Paul paints for us a clear picture of who he was, BC -- who he was before he
accepted Christ and was baptized. Who he was before he became the world's most
unlikely Christian convert. Paul offers us a quick autobiography in Acts 22:3,
he says, I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this
city of Jerusalem under Gamaliel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our
fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. In Acts 23:6,
Paul reveals that he was a Pharisee. And his dad was also a Pharisee. Remember
the Pharisees were the Jewish legalists. They believed in obeying every single
one of God's Old Testament laws. And just to make sure they did, they believed
in obeying hundreds of extra laws that were added to the Old Testament. They
obeyed all these thousands of laws. Philippians 3:5-6, Paul says a little bit
more about this in his autobiography he says I was circumcised on the eighth day
of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin. A Hebrew of Hebrews in
regard to the law, a Pharisee. As for zeal -- persecuting the church, as for
legalistic righteousness -- I was faultless. He goes on to say in Galatians 1:14.
I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely
zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
When we pieced together these verses of Paul's autobiography
and combine them with what we're told elsewhere in scripture about
Phariseeism and about the Sanhedrin and about Gamaliel. But we can paint a
pretty accurate portrait of young Saul.
You see, Saul was born in the town of Tarsus. Tarsus was
about 400 miles north of Jerusalem, so if you were to follow that coast of the
Mediterranean Sea up around the corner into modern-day Turkey, that's where you
would find Tarsus, about 11 miles or so inland from the port city there at the
Mediterranean Sea. He grew up in Tarsus. It was an important town in Paul's day. It was a cosmopolitan multiethnic town with a lot of Greek and Roman
culture worked into it. That's where he was born. But more important to his
parents than being Roman citizens was the fact that they were members of the
Community of Israel. They were Jews through and through. Paul's parents were
Roman citizens, yes, but more important to them was the fact that they were
Jewish.
So, when Paul was still just a young boy, his parents
decided to move to Jerusalem. So, they moved to Jerusalem. After all, they were
Pharisees. They were these strict legalists. So, they didn't want their young
boy growing up in this pagan town of Tarsus, possibly being influenced and
tainted by all the Greeks, the Romans and the non-Jews that lived in town. They
wanted him to grow up in the heart of Judaism. So, they took him to Jerusalem
when he was probably just three or four years old. And they taught him the word
of God. They taught him the Old Testament from a very young age. These
Pharisees, they did believe in all 39 books of the Old Testament. Unlike the Sadducees.
So, you better believe that Paul's mom and dad taught him the word of God.
So, they taught him the word of God by the age of 13, and Paul
would have mastered Jewish history. He would have mastered the Psalms and the
Old Testament prophets. And he was an intelligent young man, as we can see from
him, being able to write 13 books of the New Testament later in life. He was so
intelligent that he had probably committed much of the Old Testament to memory
by the time he became 13 years of age. Sometime after his 13th birthday, most
likely while he was still a teenager,
Saul began to be mentored, by one of the most respected
Jewish rabbis of that time, a man by the name of Gamaliel. He was a Pharisee
who was part of the Jewish Sanhedrin. Part of that Supreme Court of Israel.
Gamaliel was the grandson of the most famous Jewish scholar of the 1st century
BC. That scholar we know today is Hillel. Well, Hillel's grandson was Gamaliel,
who was there on the Sanhedrin in Paul's day. Like his grandfather, Gamaliel
knew the Hebrew scriptures like the back of his hand, and he was a wise and
level-headed leader in the Sanhedrin. If you were to flip back a few chapters
to Acts 5:33-34, you can read one of Gamaliel's speeches before the Jewish
Sanhedrin. Several weeks before Stephen was arrested and put to death, the
apostle James and John had been arrested by the Sanhedrin. In fact, they had
been arrested twice and they were brought before the Sanhedrin and the Sanhedrin
in no uncertain terms, said to Peter and John stop preaching in the streets in
the name of Jesus. I want you to shut up. about Jesus. Remember Peter so
boldly, said judge for yourselves, whether it is right before God, to obey him
or you. No, we're going to keep obeying, obeying God instead of obeying man. So,
that's what Peter had said before the Sanhedrin. Gamaliel so wisely stood up at
that point that the Sanhedrin was furious and wanted to stone Peter and John to
death. He stood up and said this and Acts 4:38, he said. Therefore, in the
present case, I advise you. Leave these men alone. Let them go for if Peter and
John's purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from
God, you will not be able to stop these men. You will only find yourselves
fighting against God.
Gamaliel may have single-handedly saved Peter and John's
lives. Cooler heads prevailed that day. The rest of the Sanhedrin took his
advice. They chose to flog Peter and John and then release them. So where was
Saul during Gamaliel's great speech there in Acts 4. Well, as a student of
Gamaliel, he was probably right there in the gallery, listening to every word
that his rabbi was saying. Saul probably overheard every word Gamaliel said in
that speech, and based on how Saul responded to Stephen's murder just a few
weeks later, I'm pretty sure I know what Saul was thinking when his mentor
Gamaliel was giving his speech. Saul was probably thinking something like this,
the old man is getting soft. Yeah, I'm very thankful. Don't get me wrong, I'm
thankful for what he's taught me, but he's dead wrong on this one. We can't
afford to tiptoe around these Jesus followers and treat them with kid gloves.
We must nip this Jesus cult in the bud. We need to wipe out its leaders and we
have no time to lose. I'm pretty confident that's what was going through Saul's
head. He had been trained and mentored by Gamaliel, but there's a shift that
takes place where it seems like now, he came out from underneath the tutelage
of Gamaliel and rolled up his sleeves and said, I'm going to take matters into
my own hands. You see it was just a few weeks later, right after Stephen's sermon
that the blood of Stephen splattered the ground next to where Saul was
standing and guarding the coats of the murderers. Regardless of whether or not
Gamaliel approved, Saul wasn't going to follow in his footsteps anymore. He was
ready to man up and do a Gamaliel didn't seem to have the guts to do to stamp
out Christianity, once and for all. No matter what Gamaliel or Nicodemus or his
parents or anyone else said, Saul was going to do everything within his power
to wipe out every last Christian on earth. He would either force them to deny
and blaspheme Jesus's name, or he would throw them into prison, and if they
wouldn't let up, he'd cover the streets with their blood. That was his mission.
That was his purpose.
This is the man of God who God shows to plant churches
throughout Europe and Asia This is the man God leads to becoming the most
influential Christian who ever lived. No one in his right mind would have ever
guessed.
I'd like to share with you three life lessons that we can
pull from this study of the early years of Paul, three lessons that we can
learn from Paul, BC.
Even the greatest Christians have a dark side.
Life lesson #1. Even the greatest Christians have a dark
side. We all have checkered pasts. It's true, isn't it? We all have a dark
side. We all have dark checkered pasts. I have it. You have it. Everyone around
us has a dark side and a checkered past. David, the man after God's Own Heart,
think about David. He was an adulterer and a murderer. How about Abraham, the
great man of faith and the friend of God? He told two different kings that his
wife was his sister to save his own skin. That's not so great, is it? How about
Jesus's apostle Peter? He denied knowing Jesus three times. How about Paul
here? He arrested and killed Christians because the bottom line was, he hated
Jesus. Even the most loving, caring world-changing Christians have checkered
pasts. No one is squeaky clean. We all have a dark side to our testimony.
There is hope for you in Christ
This leads us to a life lesson #2. No matter what you've
done. No matter how far you strayed from God? There is hope for you in Christ.
If you'll let him, God will save you. Do you believe that? It's true. Most of
you have heard me say it before. I hope that it rings like a broken record
in your ears. God's grace is greater than my disgrace. God's grace is greater
than my disgrace, say out loud. God's grace is greater than my disgrace. It's
true. The most loved Christian song of the past 200 years has
certainly been the song Amazing Grace. And some of you may have never heard the
story of how that hymn came about. In the late 1700s, a man by the name of John
Newton was doing one of the most heinous things that any human being could ever
do. John Newton had a slave ship that he was taking down to Africa. He was
kidnapping Africans, shoving them into the whole of his ship and taking them
back and selling them into the slave trade in England. And he did this trip
after trip until finally he gave his life to Christ and became so convicted by
what he had been doing. He quit the slave trade and years later penned those
words.
Amazing Grace. How
sweet the sound. That saved a wretch like me, I once was lost. But now I'm
found. Was blind, but now I see.
He looked back on his
life as a slave ship captain. And for the rest of his life, bearing that guilt
and that shame of what he had done, was never ceasing to be amazed by the grace
of Almighty God through Christ. That was greater than his disgrace. And some
believe that the tune that those words to Amazing Grace was put to was the
tune that he heard those African slaves singing in the whole of his ship. As he
took that trip from Africa to England years earlier. That melody haunted him,
and he worked it into this beautiful hymn that has ministered to hundreds of
1,000,000 in the last 200 years. God's grace is greater than our disgrace. Over
the years, I thought many times, if God could forgive a man like John Newton,
then he can certainly forgive me. And I say the same to you today. If God can
forgive and save a man like John Newton, then certainly he can save you as
well. No matter what you've done, no matter how far you've strayed from God,
there is hope for you in Christ. If you'll let him, God will save you.
He recruits them to change the world
And finally, life lesson #3. God doesn't just save hellbent
sinners, he recruits them to change the world. It is so important that you take
to heart this life lesson, I don't want you to miss it. First of all, I want
you to see how it applies to you. Even after you're saved, Satan is very good
at whispering things in your ear. He's very good at whispering in your ear.
You're a loser. You're a nobody. You don't belong at church. You don't fit in.
You're a hypocrite. You can't serve, you can't lead anyone to Christ. You're
useless. You know, I'm telling the truth, don't you? Satan is very good at
whispering in her ears even after we're saved, and that's when Jesus Christ
calls you and me to take a stand and say get behind me, Satan. Go to hell. Say
well, my mom taught me never to say go to hell. Well, you say to Satan and I'm giving you
permission. You tell Satan to get behind you. You tell him to get lost, to go
to where he belongs to the pit of hell, because the truth is, I used to be a
loser, but Jesus Christ has made me a winner. I used to be a nobody, but Jesus
has made me a "somebody." I used to be a reject, but now I've got a church
family that loves me. I belong here and now I can serve. I can leave my friends
and family to Christ. I am useful. Jesus Christ has filled my life with purpose
and I can, and I will do great things for him. Not because I'm great, but
because the savior within me is great and I take to the bank his words, his
promise that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I can do
all things through him. Oh, I was a loser. I was a nobody. I was a reject. But
Jesus Christ has made me someone because of his grace and His mercy on me.
Oh, listen. I don't want you to miss what I'm about to say.
This third lesson here doesn't just apply to you, but it applies to those
around you, especially those who are the least likely on the planet to ever get
saved and ever be used by God to change the world. This lesson here, God
doesn't just save hell-bent sinners, he recruits them to change the world. This
lesson applies to your brother or sister who hasn't gone to church in 10 years.
It applies to your son or daughter who told you a few months back. I don't
believe in God anymore. It applies to your niece and nephew. Who were strung
out on drugs? Who knows where? You don't even know where they are, but they're
out on the streets somewhere, strung out on drugs. This lesson applies to them
as well. It applies to your uncle in prison, it applies to your neighbor down
the street, who's one of the most wicked men you've ever met. It applies to
Snoop Dogg. It applies to Bill Maher. It applies to Joe Biden. It applies to
Donald Trump. And yes, it even applies to Vladimir Putin. This life lesson
applies to anyone and everyone, Christians don't stop praying for those that
you know who are the least likely to ever get saved, and the least likely to
ever be used by God to change the world, because those are the very ones that
God will save and recruit to change this world for Jesus Christ. You see, God did it 2000 years ago with a
Jesus-hating murderer named Saul, and he still does it today.
Prayer -- God, I thank you that years ago, You took hold of
the heart of a man named Abraham Lincoln, who was born in a one-room log cabin
in the outskirts of some Podunk town of Kentucky. You set him apart to be used
by you. To lead our country through the most challenging endeavor it ever faced.
Thank you, Lord, for using Abraham Lincoln. Thank you, Lord, for taking hold of
the heart of that murderous slave trader John Newton and saving him and using
him to pen a hymn that has blessed hundreds of 1,000,000 over the last 200
years. Thank you, Lord, for taking the heart, and using the heart of John
Newton. Thank you, Lord, for taking hold of the heart of Paul who hated you?
But even though he hated You, You came to him, You revealed Yourself to him and
You gave him an opportunity to be saved. And you used him to change the world.
And thank you, Lord, for what you are doing in us, we don't deserve our
salvation, but you gave it to us anyway, thank you. And help us to in faith, believe
what most people refuse to believe. That the worst of sinners around us, the
most wicked men, the most rebellious women, can be saved through the grace of
Jesus Christ. Because your Grace is greater than their disgrace. And not only
can you save them, but you can also use them to turn around and save many
others. You can use them to change this world for Jesus Christ. Increase our
faith, Lord Jesus. Help us to believe that you still do today in lives what you
did in the life of Saul 2000 years ago. Thank you, Lord. For this great man of
faith, and what you did bringing him from where he was into the man he became.
In Jesus' name.
Thank you so much for diving into God's word today. God did
it for Paul. He can do it for you. God did it for Paul. He can do it for those
around us. Believe it. Pray for it and work together with him. To lead the
least likely sinners, I should say the least likely Christians into a saving
knowledge of Jesus Christ. God bless you as you serve our Lord today.
