May 18th, 2022
How many of you have ever tried to change something in your life unsuccessfully? Especially at New Year’s, people notoriously make resolutions to start new habits or break existing ones. We all know this rarely goes well. Usually, these work for a little while before we fall back into old ways. This is why gyms are packed in January and normal again by March! Good plans are easy to make, but difficult to execute. The reality is that it’s not easy for people to change, even when we want to. However, when we come to Jesus, there must be a change, not just of one habit or mindset, but a total transformation. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says we are “new creations in Christ Jesus!” Arguably the most notable conversion in the Bible is the Apostle Paul, who went from overseeing the murder of Christians to writing the majority of the New Testament. How did Paul change so radically and how do we? It is not by our strength or willpower, but only by the power of God, and that is what I want to talk to you about this week!
Saul, better known as Paul, was a Jewish Pharisee, zealous for the law of the Old Testament and passionate about his religion. He oversaw the arrests and executions of followers of Jesus because he believed them to be heretical. He wasn’t just lukewarm. He hated Christianity. Acts 9:1-2 says,
“But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.”
That doesn’t seem like a man who would readily convert to the cause of Jesus, does it? However, we read in the very next verse of the encounter that would change his life forever, when he met the One he only thought he knew about. Paul later recounts the story powerfully when he is defending himself to King Agrippa in Acts 26:13-18:
“At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, that shone around me and those who journeyed with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
Paul was so against Jesus that he was determined to destroy anyone that lived for Him, but one encounter changed everything. He would give his whole life for the gospel of Jesus Christ and write the majority of the New Testament. Much later in his life the same man who hated Christians wrote from prison:
“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Phil. 8-11).
Paul counted everything as garbage compared to the worth of knowing the One he met on the road to Damascus and he would spend the rest of His life knowing Him better. This is exactly the same way that it works when we encounter Jesus. See, none of us can change ourselves. We can’t just come to Jesus and decide we’re going to live for Him. We are drawn by the power of the Holy Spirit, changed by the Power of His Word, filled, and revived by His Spirit and kept by His goodness and mercy. It is “Not by might, nor by power, but by [His] Spirit” (Zeph. 4:6). It is difficult for most of us to even keep a New Year’s resolution! It is impossible for us to change our hearts or live for God, except by His power and His righteousness, as Paul said above. It’s not a righteousness of our own, but His righteousness that comes by faith!
I didn’t grow up in a traditional Christian home, but I did go to a school that taught the word of God and I went to church every now and then. By the time I was a teenager, I was far from God, angry and broken, but I knew enough to know I wasn’t living right. In truth, I believed in God but thought He didn’t care. I was wrong. When I was 16 years old, I had an encounter with God that changed my life forever. In a church service I reluctantly attended because a friend invited me, I met the One I’d only heard about. I was absolutely overwhelmed by the presence of God, and it was like He turned a floodlight on in my broken soul. As strange as it may sound, I struggled to sleep that night because when I closed my eyes it was bright behind my eyelids, like I had just looked into the sun or a lightbulb that was too bright. When I would finally fall asleep, I would wake up saying the name of Jesus. My soul had met Him, and I was crying out for more even as I tried to sleep. The residual presence of that encounter didn’t wear off for days! My walk with God was a journey from that point on. I wasn’t immediately changed. I didn’t know what God was like or what His word said, but it was the power of that encounter that changed the course of my whole life.
If you have been struggling with something in your life that you know needs to change, I encourage you to lay it at the feet of Jesus and seek His face until you don’t see that thing anymore. In Galatians 3:2-3, Paul asked the church “Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” We can’t be saved by God’s power and then perfect ourselves by our own strength. If we try to do that, we’ll spend our lives struggling in condemnation! It’s only encounter with God and His word that transforms us. One encounter will change the course of a life, and then it’s encounter after encounter that transforms us from glory to glory! Christianity is not dead religion, but a relationship with the One “whom Paul affirmed to be alive” (Acts 25:19) and who will show Himself alive to us, time and time again!
Saul, better known as Paul, was a Jewish Pharisee, zealous for the law of the Old Testament and passionate about his religion. He oversaw the arrests and executions of followers of Jesus because he believed them to be heretical. He wasn’t just lukewarm. He hated Christianity. Acts 9:1-2 says,
“But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.”
That doesn’t seem like a man who would readily convert to the cause of Jesus, does it? However, we read in the very next verse of the encounter that would change his life forever, when he met the One he only thought he knew about. Paul later recounts the story powerfully when he is defending himself to King Agrippa in Acts 26:13-18:
“At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, that shone around me and those who journeyed with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
Paul was so against Jesus that he was determined to destroy anyone that lived for Him, but one encounter changed everything. He would give his whole life for the gospel of Jesus Christ and write the majority of the New Testament. Much later in his life the same man who hated Christians wrote from prison:
“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Phil. 8-11).
Paul counted everything as garbage compared to the worth of knowing the One he met on the road to Damascus and he would spend the rest of His life knowing Him better. This is exactly the same way that it works when we encounter Jesus. See, none of us can change ourselves. We can’t just come to Jesus and decide we’re going to live for Him. We are drawn by the power of the Holy Spirit, changed by the Power of His Word, filled, and revived by His Spirit and kept by His goodness and mercy. It is “Not by might, nor by power, but by [His] Spirit” (Zeph. 4:6). It is difficult for most of us to even keep a New Year’s resolution! It is impossible for us to change our hearts or live for God, except by His power and His righteousness, as Paul said above. It’s not a righteousness of our own, but His righteousness that comes by faith!
I didn’t grow up in a traditional Christian home, but I did go to a school that taught the word of God and I went to church every now and then. By the time I was a teenager, I was far from God, angry and broken, but I knew enough to know I wasn’t living right. In truth, I believed in God but thought He didn’t care. I was wrong. When I was 16 years old, I had an encounter with God that changed my life forever. In a church service I reluctantly attended because a friend invited me, I met the One I’d only heard about. I was absolutely overwhelmed by the presence of God, and it was like He turned a floodlight on in my broken soul. As strange as it may sound, I struggled to sleep that night because when I closed my eyes it was bright behind my eyelids, like I had just looked into the sun or a lightbulb that was too bright. When I would finally fall asleep, I would wake up saying the name of Jesus. My soul had met Him, and I was crying out for more even as I tried to sleep. The residual presence of that encounter didn’t wear off for days! My walk with God was a journey from that point on. I wasn’t immediately changed. I didn’t know what God was like or what His word said, but it was the power of that encounter that changed the course of my whole life.
If you have been struggling with something in your life that you know needs to change, I encourage you to lay it at the feet of Jesus and seek His face until you don’t see that thing anymore. In Galatians 3:2-3, Paul asked the church “Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” We can’t be saved by God’s power and then perfect ourselves by our own strength. If we try to do that, we’ll spend our lives struggling in condemnation! It’s only encounter with God and His word that transforms us. One encounter will change the course of a life, and then it’s encounter after encounter that transforms us from glory to glory! Christianity is not dead religion, but a relationship with the One “whom Paul affirmed to be alive” (Acts 25:19) and who will show Himself alive to us, time and time again!
No Comments