Paul: Convinced of God’s Call

If you were to die tomorrow, and somebody had to write your epitaph, what would they write? What would be the things they would focus upon that would capture the essence of you?

Not too many people ever get a chance to find out. Usually, you’re not around to read your own obituary! But that very thing happened to a man named Alfred Nobel about a hundred years ago, and it changed his life.

Alfred Nobel was a Norwegian industrialist who invented dynamite. He made a great deal of money by blowing things up. One morning in the year 1888, he picked up his newspaper and, to his shock, he found himself reading his own obituary. The obituary had been printed by mistake; it was Alfred’s brother who had died. But the newspaper, thinking that it was Alfred, printed his death notice instead.

As Alfred sat there reading his own obituary, he began to realize, with mounting dismay, just how the world saw him. The newspaper called him the “Dynamite King”; the great industrialist who had made millions from high explosives. As far as the general public was concerned, that had been the primary accomplishment of Alfred Nobel’s life. None of his efforts to promote world peace, or to break down the barriers that separated men and nations, were even mentioned in his obituary. Alfred Nobel was remembered simply as a merchant of death and destruction.

When he came to the end of the obituary, Alfred Nobel sat in stunned silence. Then, he resolved to make some radical changes in the way he would live the rest of his life. Making dynamite would no longer be his occupation. He would give himself full-time to the work of world peace. And, because he was nearing the end of his own life, he determined to change the way he planned to dispose of his fortune.

Nobel set up a foundation to award international prizes each year to the scientists, artists, and statesmen who had made the most significant contribution to peaceful world progress. Those prizes would become a lasting testimony to the values and ideals that Alfred Nobel held dear. Today, when we hear about the Nobel Peace Prize, we remember clearly what Alfred Nobel’s life was really all about.

This morning, I want to ask you to do something that Alfred Nobel did one hundred years ago. As you listen to this message, I want you to ask yourself “What is my life all about? Why am I here? What is my reason for living? When the time comes for me to die, as sooner or later it must, how will people remember me? What will they think were my deepest convictions and values?”

Those are questions that we don’t get around to asking ourselves very often, do we? And yet, they are the most important questions in all of life!

Like the misguided king in the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes, it’s very possible for us to live our lives under a delusion. We may think that our lives are on target, when in fact, we are shooting far wide of the mark.

We may feel that we’re having a positive impact on our circle of family and friends. But in reality, if we could look through a one-way mirror into their lives, we might see something far different!

Take parents and children for example. Many is the Mom or Dad who has discovered to their shock that the parental attitudes and behaviors that they thought were being helpful to their children while they were growing up were in actual fact tearing them down and destroying them. Unfortunately, when we make those discoveries, it’s usually too late in life to go back and change anything.

But we all have an inborn tendency to want to see ourselves in the most favorable terms. We tend to justify our actions, our words, our motives. When we look at our own lives, we tend to wear rose colored glasses.

For example, have you noticed that everyone thinks that they have a great sense of humor. But how many people do you know who really do? Everyone thinks of himself as being easy to get along with. But how many people do you know who are really like that? We all claim to espouse the highest and noblest ideals. But in reality our actions speak louder than our words. Our best intentions somehow don’t translate into the best of actions, do they? We’re like Lucy in the Peanuts comic strip who declared “I love mankind; it’s people I can’t stand.”

We need to take an objective look at ourselves. It is my conviction that the only place to get such a view is in the Bible.

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Today I want to look at a man who came to a point in his life where he saw himself as he really was. Like Alfred Nobel, had an experience of painful confrontation that completely changed him. His name was Paul.

Paul was a man of tremendous ability and intellect. He was a Jew who had been born in Tarsus. His father was a tentmaker, and that is the trade that Paul learned himself. But it soon became obvious to his family that his mind was capable of much greater things. He had a keen intelligence, an insatiable hunger for learning, and an excellent memory.

Being devout Jews, they sent him to Jerusalem to study Torah under the great rabbi Gamaliel. While there, Paul channelled his zeal into memorizing the Law of Moses. He learned the nuances of Judaic interpretation of the Law. He learned to summarize the arguments of Shimei and Hillel and all the other great rabbis who had scaled the heights of learning before him.

Paul knew at least three languages well: Hebrew, which he used in the study of the Law; Aramaic, which was the language of everyday life in Judea; and Greek, the language of commerce, trade, and culture in the Eastern Mediterranean. He was also very familiar with Latin, the language of the conquering Romans who governed the land of Palestine.

Paul became a member of the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the most Jewish of the Jews. They gave themselves to the study of the Torah, and also to oral tradition of teaching that had grown up around it; teaching that came from the great rabbis of the past. The Pharisees made it their business to obey the Law. They developed regulations governing the minutest details of life, in an attempt to bring righteousness down to the practical every day level.

They saw themselves as the guardians of God’s revelation to the Jewish people. They were the conscience of the nation, the spiritual and moral example for Jews everywhere to follow.

But the Pharisees were only one of the many sects of Judaism in the first century. There were the Sadducees, but they were essentially humanists. When they looked at the OT, they didn’t see the supernatural hand of God at work. They didn’t believe in the resurrection of the dead, or in angels or demons. But worst of all, they were collaborators. They co-operated with the Romans. Because they did, they controlled all the juicy political appointments in Judea, such as the high priesthood. Paul had no use for the Sadducees.

Then there were the Zealots. They were the political radicals of their day, something like the PLO or the IRA in the 20th century. Their solution to the Imperial occupation was to stick a dagger between the ribs of every Roman they could find. Murder and mayhem was their stock in trade. While the Pharisees often were in sympathy with the Zealots, they would not and could not allow themselves to be tainted by Zealot methods.

Then there were the Essenes. They were the mystics of first century Judaism. They were so disillusioned with their society that they had decided to drop out of it entirely. They formed a community called Qumran on the shores of the Dead Sea. It was sort of a cross between a monastery and a hippie commune. There, they gave themselves to the study of the Old Testament, and awaited the coming of a Messiah who would set up his kingdom with their little group on center stage.

Finally, there were the Nazarenes. These were the people who troubled Paul the most. They were devoted to a rabbi named Jeshua. His name was Jesus in Greek. That in itself wasn’t unusual; there were many rabbis in Judea, and each had his own following. But what made this rabbi different was that…

1. He didn’t come up through any of the recognized rabbinical schools. He seemingly just appeared out of nowhere, from Nazareth in Galilee of all places, and he began teaching the people.

2. He taught with tremendous authority, and was extremely gifted. But his teaching contradicted much of what the Pharisees taught, and he almost seemed to go out of his way to highlight the differences.

3. His followers claimed that he performed miracles. There were all sorts of stories about crowds being fed, and sick people being healed. There was even a fellow named Lazarus whom he was supposed to have raised from the dead.

Now all this was bad enough in Paul’s mind. This rabbi Jesus was clearly a man to be reckoned with. But what made it infinitely worse was that this Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, the Son of God. Some of Paul’s Pharisee friends had actually heard Jesus say “I and the Father are one.” There were even rumors that he had dared to call himself by the sacred name of the God of Israel.

He had been rightly executed. Sure, the trial had been slightly irregular, but nobody should get away with blasphemy like that! But if only it had ended there.

Now, these crazy Nazarenes were claiming that Jesus had actually risen from the dead, and if anything, they were even more devoted to him than before. “What folly!” thought Paul “What folly! When they should be studying Torah like good Jews, when they should be diligently trying to work out their salvation by observing the Law, instead they’re running around spreading this nonsense about Jesus providing their salvation for them.”

“This is nothing but a personality cult! If this goes much further, we’re going to start seeing Jews everywhere turn away from the Law to follow this Nazarene. After all, it’s so much easier than obeying the Law. These Nazarenes, these “people of the Way” as they call themselves, have got to be stopped. The survival of our religion is at stake.”

That’s why Paul was on the road to Damascus that noonday when he was stopped in his tracks by none other than the risen Lord Jesus himself. The story of Paul’s conversion from being a persecutor of Christians to being a follower of Jesus himself is so decisive that it is repeated three separate times in the Bible, in Acts 9, 22, and 26. Each passage reveals a few more details. We simply do not have time to explore it in depth, but I want to draw your attention to several important truths.

Paul was a man who was investing his life in what he regarded to be important activity. He was pouring his time, energy, and intelligence, into the task of wiping out what he felt was a dangerous religious heresy. In that sense, Paul’s life was purposeful. But was that purpose God’s purpose?

He thought he was doing God’s will, but what he was doing was diametrically opposed to God’s will. And it wasn’t until he personally met Jesus that he understood that fact. This encounter with the risen Lord Jesus Christ totally altered his priorities, his outlook on life, his beliefs, and his personal agenda. Why?

Because of who Jesus is. Notice Paul’s response when he fell to the ground blinded by the great light and heard the voice from heaven saying “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” He asked a question. “Who are you, Lord?” Now we shouldn’t read too much into the word “Lord” there. It was merely a form of salutation. Paul didn’t quite realize yet that he was speaking to God.

But the incredible, blazing light of God’s glory was so great that Paul was sprawled on the ground, blinded. Clearly, he knew that something supernatural was going on. This light was so bright, that Paul was going to be physically blind for the next three days. His eyes were tightly closed. But at the moment the voice of God answered “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” the eyes of Paul’s heart were opened.

For Paul, that statement was a thunderclap of revelation. He realized that Jesus and God were one in the same person. That troublesome Galilean rabbi had actually been God in human form. The followers of Jesus were right: he was alive, and what’s more, he had always been alive, because he was God.

So what did that mean? What were the implications for him? It meant that he had been pouring his life into working against God. In his religious zeal, he was seeking to destroy what God was building. He had lined up on the wrong side of battle; he was marching in the wrong direction; he was serving the wrong master.

We can only come to grips with who we are when we come to grips with who Jesus is. Jesus is God. He came here to live and die for us. And that fact changes everything; especially the way that we think about ourselves. How does it change us? Let’s look at how it changed Paul.

The account of Paul’s conversion in Acts 22 tells us that he asked a second question. He asked “What shall I do, Lord?” If Jesus Christ is God, then that means that he has a personal claim on your life. You are not your own; you are his servant. Paul immediately realized this - he said “What do you want me to do, Lord? I am at your service; I’m awaiting your command.”

This is where Jesus gave Paul a new purpose for living. He commissioned him to be an apostle to the Gentiles. He called him to be a witness of what he had seen and heard, and now knew about Jesus. From this point on, Paul was never in doubt about what he was here for.

We don’t know how old Paul was when he was converted. Probably he was in his late twenties or early thirties. But however old he was, he had lived the first part of his life outside of God’s will. Oh, he thought at the time that he was doing the will of God, but of course, he wasn’t. It was only when he met Jesus Christ that Paul’s life became purposeful in terms of doing what God had placed him here to do.

His life, from that point on, was lived in obedience to the call of God on the road to Damascus. And his life, from that point on, had enormous impact, not only on the people he met, but on the whole course of world history. That’s what happens when you answer the call of God. But what does that have to do with us here today?

Here on Long Island, we tend to be very busy. Our schedules are full, our lives are a blur of activity. We’re living life on fast-forward. But what are we living for? What is all of this frantic activity aimed at accomplishing? What’s the use of being busy if our lives are headed in the wrong direction? All of our frantic activity amounts to nothing more significant than straightening deck chairs on the Titanic.

I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t want to live that kind of life. Life is too short, life is too precious to throw away on meaningless activity. But how do you get tuned in to what you’re really here to do; what your real purpose should be?

By listening for the call of God. When we talk about the call of God, we often think that God’s call is something for missionaries or for pastors. But that is not true. God’s call is for you, because God has a purpose for you. And it is only when you start living according to that purpose that your life will begin to have real significance.

How do you listen for God’s call? Well, a lot has been written on that subject. But I think that the answer is very simple. You simply need to ask those two questions that Paul asked on the road to Damascus: “Who are you, Lord?” and “What do you want me to do?” Don’t skip over the first question in your haste to get to the second.

You can only be effective in doing what God wants you to do if you have fallen in love with Jesus Christ. It’s the relationship with his person that gives you purpose. So ask him to show you who he is.

When I come to the end of my life, and they sit down to write my obituary, I want them to be able to write about the things that I did, and the person that I was, because of who Jesus is.