PAUL THE APOSTLE ( Part 2 ) | How did he ever become a believer?

Pastor Christopher Choo

Lesson 3101

PAUL THE APOSTLE ( Part 2 )

How did he ever become a believer?

Paul was not only a fanatical zealot but a mass murderer who was determined to bring back those Jewish apostates who left Judaism for Christ not just in Jerusalem but elsewhere. He brought them back in chains for judgment before the Sanhedrin and the possible sentence of death by stoning.

He asked the chief priest in Jerusalem to authorise him to arrest any follower of Jesus in Damascus ( about 100 miles away from Jerusalem).

On his way from Judea to Damascus, a light from heaven blinded him. He fell onto the ground and heard a voice saying: " Saul, Saul why do you persecute Me?".

He answered:  "Who are you Lord?".

And the voice said, " I am Jesus, the One you are persecuting. Get up! Go into the city, and you will be told what to do."

He was told to go to a house and wait for a believer named Ananias to come to restore his sight ( Acts 9:1-12).

ABBA FATHER, Paul had to be humbled first - to fall from his standing as it were - to realise He was fighting a futile battle against our Risen Saviour, akin to " kicking against thorns". And he was physically blinded ( as a metaphor of his spiritual blindness! ) so that he needed a miracle to open his eyes to see the power and truth of the gospel and to acknowledge the error of his former ways.