The Antagonist who became an Apostle

William Ramsay was a skeptic. Born in 1851 in Glasgow, Scotland, Ramsay became a brilliant student. He attended the Universities of Aberdeen and Oxford where his intellect was forged in the fires of doubt. He was taught to question everything, and that included Christianity and the Bible. he became an expert in classicla art and achaeology, and rose to the top of the academic world as a professor at Oxford.

Ramsay was convinced that the Bible was a fraud - an unhistorical fiction produced by zealous Christian monks - certainly not the book from heaven it claimed to be. So he took his aarchaeologists spade to the Middle East to prove it. In Ramsay’s thinking, the book of Acts was the most suspect part of the bible. Its account of the travels of the apostle Paul in Asia Minor simply didn’t square with what scholars knew to be true of the history and geography of that part of the world. So he announced that he would take the book of Acts as a guide and try to trace Paul’s footsteps, adn thus demonstrate atht he couldn’t possibly have made those journeys.

However when started to dig in Asia Minor, he began to uncover peice after piece of evidence which corroborated the Bible. he spent 15 years at the task, and when he was done, all his scholarly theories were in tatters, the Bible’s trustworthiness had been vindicated, and Ramsay himself had become a Christian. he had, in the face of the evidence, made a 180 degree turn in his beliefs. over the next several years, Ramsay wrote many books showing how archaeology confirmed the message of the bible… volumes which are still used today.

Isn’t it ironic that the man whose life had started Ramsay down the pathway from skepticism to belief had made the same pilgrimage himself 1800 years earlier. For Paul started out not just a skeptic but an opponent of the Way.

Paul was born of Jewish parents in a city called Tarsus, which lay at the crossroads of the ancient world. From its strategic location at the NE corner of the Mediterranean, Tarsus had become a great city of culture and learning, rivalling Athens and Alexandria. Although it lay on a coastal plain, Tarsus was surrounded by mountains. Through those mountains cut two famous passes - the Syrian Gates on the East, adn the Cilician Gates ofn the West. Through those passes, many armies marched on campaigns of conquest between the continents of Asia and Europe.

Almost 40 years before P was born, Tarsus witnessed one of the more memorable moments in history. The Roman Empire was in an uproar after the assassination of Julius Caesar. The Roman general, Mark Antony, had just arrived in Tarsus, fresh from having beaten Cassius and Brutus at Philippi. Antony was very angry at Queen Cleopatra of Egypt, for she had given aid and comfort to the rebels. But Cleopatra arranged to meet Mark Antony at Tarsus, and she certainly did it in style.

She sailed up the Cydnus River to the city on a golden barge, arrayed in the finest silks and perfumes, dressed as Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Harps and flutes played soft music while her servant boys, dressed as Cupid, fanned her as she reclined under an awning. She knew that Antony loved Egyptian cuisine, so she brought along the finest chefs in Egypt, along with the best enertainers and magicians. One must never underestimate the resourcefulness of a woman. When this unbelievable procession arrived at the city, there is a good possibility that Paul’s own father was standing there on shore to see it.

How Paul’s family came to live as Jews in Tarsus is an open question, but there were many Jews in that city. Paul’s family were distinguished by the fact that they had been granted Roman citizenship, with all the privilege and prestige that that entailed. They were tentmakers by trade, working with the tough canvas cloth woven from the hair of Cilician goats. Tents from Tarsus were world famous for their strength an durability.

Although Paul’s family lived far from Judea, they were devout Jews. They belonged to the Pharisee party of Judaism. They were fiercely devoted to the Jewish Law in its written form: 613 commandments; 365 positives and 248 negatives. They also studied the oral law - the Halakah - the traditions of the Jews handed down from rabbi to rabbi over hundreds of years. p as a boy ubdoubtedly went to the best Pharisaic schools in Tarsus. When he was old enough - probably at the age of 13 - he went to Jerusalem to study under the great Pharisee, Rabbi Gamaliel, who himself was the grandson of an even greater rabbi, Hillel.

Paul devoted the next several years of his life to an intensive study of the Jewish Law, seeking to understand how it applied to every conceivable situation of life, and seeking to live out its requirements in his own life. Whether he ever came into contact at this stage of his life with another rabbi - a rabbi named Yeshua of Nazareth - is unknown, but P would soon learn a lot more about him.

For Rabbi Yeshua was no ordinary rabbi. He claimed to be the Messiah. In fact, he even claimed to be God. In Paul’s mind, the only way to deal with a blasphemer like that was to silence him, and that is exactly what the Pharisees did. With the help of the Romans, they had him crucified and that was the end of that. No man who was crucified could have been the Messiah for according to Deut.21:23, the curse of God Himself is upon anyone who is hung on a tree. The Jewish Law gave the final verdict on this imposter and the matter was closed, or so Paul thought.

Paul was a man now - an expert in the religious law of the Jews, and because of his roots in Tarsus, an authority on Gentile culture as well. Undoubtedly he looked forward to establishing a reputation as a teacher in his own right, perhaps someday a worthy successor of his mentor Gamaliel. But for the time being, something of more immediate concern occupied his attention.

It seemed that the influence of this Rabbi Yeshua of Nazareth simply refused to go away. In fact it was growing by leaps and bounds, even though he had been crucified. Not only were more and more Jews being attracted to his teachings, but his followers were making the wildest claims about his having been raised from the dead! If that weren’t bad enough, some of Paul’s own colleagues from among the Pharisees had defected to this new movement.

Paul determined that this was no less than a threat to the future of Judaism itself. These followers of Yeshua were Jews no longer. They advocated a way of salvation apart from the Torah. That was blasphemy! What’s more, they worshiped Yeshua as God in the flesh. That was even more blasphemous! Clearly they had to be stopped and Paul, this righteous Pharisee, made it his personal business to stop them. Unlike his teacher Gamaliel, who according to Acts 5 recommended a wait and see approach, Paul sought to use force to bring these people to heel. He regarded them as traitors to Judaism, and treason was worthy of death.

The first case to come before the Sanhedrin - the Jewish civil and religious court - was that of a young Christian named Stephen. We read his story in Acts 6. He was brought up on charges of blaspheming against Moses and God. He gave an impassioned speech which seemed less aimed at defending himself than at convicting his accusers of being against God. This was too much for the learned elders who sat on the court. They adjourned in an uproar, and Stephen was dragged out of the city and summarily stoned to death. Paul was there. He stood by as it happened, watching the cloaks of those who were doing the stoning, lending his approval to the deed.

To Paul, the stoning of Stephen established a precedent. If the Sanhedrin regarded this Christian blasphemy as a capital offence, then other Christians must be brought to book as well. So it is that we read in Acts 9

Acts 9:1 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

Paul embarked on a campaign designed to nip this Christian movement in the bud. Much later in his life, as he describes his actions at this time, Paul says…

Acts 22:4 I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, as also the high priest and all the Council can testify. I even obtained letters from them to their brothers in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.

So it was that Paul was on the road to Damascus when something happened that utterly and profoundly changed his life. Hear how Luke describes it in Acts 9

Acts 9:3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

Paul had come face to face with Jesus Christ and had discovered that Jesus indeed was God. This proud self-righteous Pharisee who thought he had been doing the will of God had totally missed God’s way. He had been fighting God all his life. In recounting this experience later, Paul relates that Jesus told him…

It is hard for you to kick against the goads.

A goad is a long stick with a sharp point at one end. Farmers used it to prod their oxen before the plow. It didn’t do the oxen any good to kick against the goad, for the more they kicked, the more they felt its sting.

What are the goads that Jesus referred to here in Paul’s life? I believe that Jesus was saying that Paul had been under conviction for some time - that there had been things in his life which were meant to prod him to Christ, and he had been wrestling with those things.

Paul was a very intelligent man. He had seen these Christians, like Stephen, go to their death with a smile on their face and a countenance that shone with hope. Why? No matter how many he chased down and arrested, there were always more. They didn’t want to trade their faith for their freedom. What was it about them? I believe that one of the goads in Paul’s life was the testimony of these Christians he was persecuting.

Perhaps Paul was also growing disillusioned with a life of law-keeping as well. For all his zeal in obeying the law, there always seemed to be some little point he missed. Or some heart attitude such as covetousness, or envy, or pride that seemed so hard to get rid of. It seemed that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t defeat those sins of the heart the law spoke of. They seemed to be part of his nature - part of everyone’s nature - immune to the best intentions of man. Perhaps another goad was the emptiness and frustration of a man who couldn’t be good enough.

Whatever the proddings were, here was Paul flat on his face before God on the road to Damascus. He had met Jesus, and his life was completely and totally changed. Whereas he had been an enemy of the church, from this day on he would be its champion. Whereas he had been an antagonist of Jesus, from this day on he would be his apostle. Whereas he had been a man bent on wiping out the Gospel, from this day on he would be devoted to spreading it.

What can so radically change a person’s life? What can turn a man completely around? Only Jesus can. And the exciting thing about the story of Paul is that Jesus is still in the business of doing this today.

Perhaps you know someone who is totally against Christianity and Jesus Christ. You’ve witnessed to them and they laugh at you, or even worse, they ignore you. They seem as cold as ice to spiritual things; as far from the kingdom as it is possible to be.

Take heart, for Paul was once like this, and if truth be told, so were many of us before we met Jesus. No one is beyond the reach of the Saviour. Even this very moment, Christ can be applying those goads to their life in ways that you or I cannot see. Paul himself tells us not to give up on such people. He says in 1 Tim 1

1 Timothy 1:15-16 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.

Paul says “Look at me. I’m the test case. If Christ can save me - the worst of sinners, Christ can save anybody.” And notice that Christ came to save sinners. Not nice people who would make lovely Christians with few alterations necessary. Sinners.

So don’t give up witnessing and praying.