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Hillside O’Malley SDA Church

Lessons from the Life of Paul

David Shin

Conversion and Conviction

Father in heaven, we thank you for this opportunity that we have this morning to pause for a few moments to reflect on your goodness and your holy word.

We pray that the Holy Spirit would use this feeble instrument, human words, reflecting on the Word of God, to apply to our hearts this morning.

We pray that the Holy Spirit would specifically tailor the message to our individual needs.

For we ask these things in the precious name of Jesus.

Well, today we are beginning a new fall series of messages.

But thank you for allowing me to speak at other places this summer, and I am back in the pulpit for 10 straight Sabbaths.

So 10 straight Sabbaths I will be here, barring any unexpected things, but that's the plan.

And we'll be journeying through the life of Paul, and Paul is 1 of the most significant contributors to the New Testament.

Some would argue the most prolific and theologically nuanced writer of the New Testament.

It's hard to imagine the Protestant Reformation taking place without the writings of Paul, and specifically the idea that the just shall live by faith.

So today we want to focus on his conversion.

Now as we go through this journey, I wanna invite you to read the book, Acts of the Apostles, in addition to the book of Acts in the Bible.

This is from Ellen White, it's part of the Complex series.

It is a rich resource and insight that is complementary to the Holy Scriptures, and I'll be referencing that in our study today.

And as we look at his conversion, I want to invite you to go with me in your Bibles to the sermon preached by Stephen in Acts chapter 7 verses 51 through 60.

The backdrop for this is that Stephen has been chosen as a deacon and he begins preaching the word of God with power, and this is a threat to the religious leaders, so he's brought under false pretenses and false accusations to a trial before the religious leaders.

And in Acts chapter 7, he begins preaching to the Sanhedrin at this trial.

You can read this on a Sabbath afternoon, chapter 7.

I wanna pick up in verse 51, because as many preachers do, you notice when your congregation begins to drift.

People start falling asleep maybe or going elsewhere, and Stephen noticed that his audience was not tracking with him anymore.

It's not that they weren't paying attention.

So in the midst of his sermon that he's giving to the religious leaders, he stops.

The line of giving, the thread of Jesus being the fulfillment of the messianic prophecies and he diverges and cuts straight to the chase.

You can notice the immediate transition if you're reading through chapter 7.

In 51, verse 51, you see, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears." Everyone suddenly perked up at that moment.

Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?

And they killed the 1 who foretold the coming of the just 1, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.

Verse 54, when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and they gnashed at him with their teeth.

But He being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." This is what's happening.

Stephen is preaching a sermon, suddenly he noticed that no 1 is listening and so he cut stripes straight to the chase and says, look, you always resisting the Holy Spirit as your fathers did, so do you.

And when they heard this, there was a satanic, demonic frenzy that went over the Sanhedrin.

Stephen knew that he had just signed his death sentence.

In the book Acts of the Apostles, she comments that Stephen no longer feared death and filled with the Holy Spirit in that moment that he knew that he was a dead man.

He had a vision of heaven and God on his throne and Jesus standing at the right hand of the throne of God.

The Bible tells us that Stephen's face was like that of an angel.

Everyone could see that this man was inspired by God.

That face of inspiration, looking up toward heaven, saying, I see Jesus right now, standing at the right hand of the throne of God.

In that moment, it was a moment for their conversion in the Holy Spirit.

Verse 57, then they cried out with a loud voice.

The Bible says, and they stopped their ears and ran at him with 1 accord.

And they cast him out of the city and stoned him.

And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of the young man named Saul.

And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God, saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

Then he knelt down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, do not charge them with this sin.

And when he had said this, he fell asleep." This was a difficult time for the early church.

Tertullian says that the blood of martyrs is seed.

The Bible says that, I think I had this reference here, but let me back up here.

This is from Acts of the Apostles, page 101.

His Stephen's death was a sore trial to the church, but it resulted in the conviction of Saul, who could not efface from his memory the faith and constancy of the martyr and the glory that had rested on his countenance.

Afterward, he was angered by his own secret conviction that Stephen had been honored by God." She goes on, "...all of these things had appealed loudly to Saul, and at times had thrust upon his mind an almost overwhelming conviction that Jesus was the promised Messiah.

At such times he had struggled for entire nights against this conviction, And always he had ended the matter by avowing his belief that Jesus was not the Messiah and that his followers were deluded fanatics." The memory of that face, Stephen's face of an angel, and the memory of his final words, Lord, don't let this sin be held against them.

I'm not talking about convicted of a felony, but I'm talking about being convicted by the Holy Spirit.

In other words, you know deep down inside what you need to do, but you don't want to do it.

Perhaps it's breaking off a relationship, perhaps it's following the Lord in terms of stewardship, perhaps it's an area of your life that God is calling you to surrender, but you're convicted and you know in your heart of hearts what you need to do but you don't want to do it.

He could never erase from his memory the face of that Christian martyr, Stephen.

Now, I want to make a few comments about conviction.

That's going to be the theme of our message today.

This is from the book Evangelism, page 284.

Every fresh display of conviction of the grace of God upon the souls of unbelievers is divine.

I would say the same for believers as well.

We all feel conviction at different points in our experience.

Now, when I was living my life as a young person and apart from the Lord, I remember the overwhelming sense of conviction I heard at a camp meeting that my parents dragged me to.

And I was sitting in the audience, not wanting to be there, and the message that was talked about was about stealing, and about how this person lived a life of thievery, and met the Lord, and felt the impression and the conviction to restore what he had stolen.

And just before that message, I had stolen something.

And I sat there, and I just squirmed in my chair because of the conviction upon my own heart." We've all felt that moment where the Holy Spirit, that still small voice, is saying to us, this is the decision that you need to make and we know that we need to make it but we don't want to.

And here it is, this is evidence that the Holy Spirit is working.

Now there are different indications or visible manifestations of conviction.

The Bible says that the Holy Spirit is like the wind.

But when the wind blows, can you sense that the wind is blowing?

And so, when you're working with someone or in your own heart and you notice that the tree is shaking, you can know that the Holy Spirit is working.

This is from Pastor Louis Torres on conviction.

These are positive indications of conviction.

Some people, depending on the issue, they meet conviction with joy.

Three Years in Arabia

Father in heaven, you have been so good to us.

Lord, we are amazed at your patience with us, your forbearance, your long suffering.

And we pray this morning that as we open the words of life, that you would speak to each and every heart.

And we pray that you would bless us this morning with your spirit.

May you apply the truth Specifically to our situations and to our own hearts.

We ask these things in the precious name of Jesus Amen We're continuing in our series entitled lessons from the life of Paul and for today's study I invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Acts, chapter 9.

We pick up Right after Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus, remember last Sabbath we touched on Paul traveling to Damascus to persecute Christians, to take them back to Jerusalem, take them to trial and ultimately to their death.

And on the road to Damascus, he sees Jesus.

His eyes are blinded, and he recognizes that he has been on the wrong side, and for 3 days, the Bible tells us that he was not eating, probably not sleeping very much, not drinking any water, and he was blind for 3 days.

I wonder what was going through his mind during those 3 days as he sat in isolation in an undisclosed location and suddenly God comes to Ananias, a Christian living in Damascus and says, I want you to go see Saul of Tarsus, who would become Paul, and we pick it up here, he goes to see brother Saul.

Paul in verse 17, so Ananias departed and entered the house after laying his hands on him said brother Saul the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Now this is the point in Paul's ministry where his eyesight is restored.

But the other part that I missed many times as I read the Book of Acts was here Ananias laid hands on Saul, and the Bible says that in that moment he was filled with the Holy Spirit.

This is a reoccurring theme in the Book of Acts where you see that the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and the Bible paints this picture of this metaphor of the Holy Spirit being an agency that is poured out.

And it gives the implication that we as human beings are like vessels, we're like cups in a way, that have the potential to be filled with different spirits.

In Acts chapter 5, the Bible says that Satan had filled the heart of Ananias and Sapphira.

And I don't know about you, but I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

All of us have the potential to be filled with different spirits and we can every day ask for the Holy Spirit to fill us.

We don't want any vacancy in our own hearts because we are spiritual vessels with that potential to be filled with different spirits.

Paul begins preaching the gospel, and we pick it up in verse 25 and 26.

I'll give you the opportunity to read the whole chapter on a Sabbath afternoon.

Verse 25 and 26, then his disciples took him by night and led him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a large basket.

The reason why Paul had to flee was he was preaching the gospel, you can imagine this man that was a persecutor and was gonna drag Christians off to be incarcerated had suddenly become a Christian and he was preaching the gospel giving his testimony and he became such a threat to the Jews that They were going to kill him so he escaped through a basket or through the wall in a Basket and then in verse 26 the Bible says that he went to Jerusalem.

Now, an important principle of Bible study is that you want to compare Scripture with Scripture because the book of Acts moves on to the next notable event, but I want to invite you to turn with me to Galatians chapter 1, verse 17 and 18.

An important principle is to compare scripture with scripture, and in Galatians chapter 1, verse 17 and 18, Paul tells us that in the gap between verse 25 and 26 was not several days or several weeks.

It was actually quite a bit of a period of time.

Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away to Arabia and once more to Damascus.

Then 3 years later I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him 15 days.

Now follow me here because the Bible says that Paul was in Arabia for 3 years before he went to Jerusalem, according to Galatians chapter 1, 17 and 18.

Now I have it here on the screen for you.

And so this gives an indication of the gap between verse 25 and 26 of Acts chapter 9.

You have Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus, and if you fill in the blanks and read some of other Paul's writings, Galatians tells us that between Paul's conversion and him becoming a missionary to the Gentiles, introducing himself to the Jews in Jerusalem, there was a gap of 3 years where Paul spent time in isolation in the deserts of Arabia.

Have you ever had a time in your life where you wondered, What in the world am I doing here?

I mean, this was a leave of absence, where his life was on hold.

I wonder how many more books of the New Testament we would have if Paul had been not missing in action for those 3 years?

How many more churches could we have from an efficiency standpoint?

But God had Paul missing in action, in isolation, for 3 years.

Have you ever had a time in your life where you're wondering, Lord, what am I doing here?

This situation, it seems like my life is on hold.

Now, I've noticed that it's very difficult to get a direct flight out of Alaska.

I remember I was flying to Africa and it was a long flight over the ocean.

Then we had a layover in Paris that was overnight.

And because we were so cheap, we decided to spend the night in the airport terminal.

And it seems like they make those seats as uncomfortable as possible.

I remember trying to spend the night in Paris, and I just wanted to get to my final destination the thing about a layover is That you know that this is a temporary Holding pattern this is not your final destination This is not the place that God ultimately wants to lead you.

I wanted to go to Africa I didn't want to hang out in Paris and we were there for what seemed like an eternity in the security terminal with our little Blankets if you can call them that just just trying to get some sleep and we slept absolutely 0 during that time in that layover.

And sometimes following God means a detour.

Sometimes following God means that God says, I want to put the pause button on your life.

I want to put you in a holding pattern on a layover.

When I graduated from the seminary, I was eager to do ministry, and I was put in my first district in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Yes, there is a place called Kalamazoo, by the way.

I was to be an associate there, to be trained as an intern the first year.

And while I was there, Quentin said, I want you to give worship to these elementary school kids and I want to observe you.

So I went into our little school that was attached to our church there and gave worship to our elementary school kids and afterwards Quentin says I want to have a conversation with you and he said do you realize David that those young people did not understand a single word that you said you can't use words like existential David you you've got a you've got to do something about this.

And I had just come out of seminary studying Bultmann, Penenberg, and Reinhold Niebuhr, and all of these theologians and so forth.

So now I was coming off the ivory tower and I could not relate to individuals.

And I said, praise the Lord that I'll never have to do youth ministry.

Well, a year later, the brethren decided that they would place me in a congregation of 1, 000 people, a multi-pastoral staff, where you had the senior pastor, you had the associate pastor, you had a full-time counselor, and they said, David, we want you to be the youth pastor, which meant specialization.

And for 3 seemingly eternal years, It felt like a long time.

I was in Berrien Springs doing youth ministry.

I didn't even get to preach but maybe 2 times a year to the main congregation.

But every single Sabbath, I was giving the lesson to the youth.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love youth ministry, but I'm just not cut from that particular cloth.

You know, there are individuals that are gifted with youth ministry and I praise the Lord for them, but I knew that this was not my final destination and here I was in Berrien Springs doing youth ministry for 3 years and I would call my mom and I'd say, Mom, I just don't know what I'm doing here.

Month after month after month after month.

Now looking back on that experience, I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Because every single Sabbath, I had to take beautiful heavenly principles and make them simple and understandable to children.

Every week I would give Bible studies to 10, 11, 9 year olds, and I would have to take biblical principles understandable to a child.

And God told me, look, anyone can take something and make it more complicated.

But you as a minister of the gospel, you need to take heavenly principles and make them understandable, comprehensible.

And so during that time, by the way, I met my lovely wife as well during that time, the Lord knew what he was doing, you know?

And I knew that this was not my final destination.

I knew that this was not where God was going to lead me, but God put my life on hold and said, David, there's some things that you need to learn.

And so for this time period, for 3 years, your life is going to be what you think is on hold.

It's not going to be your final destination.

You're going to be in a situation where you're thinking, what in the world is going on?

I know that this is not where I'm supposed to be.

But God is saying, look, I want you to stay in this pause, period.

And that's where Paul was for 3 long years.

Gospel to the Gentiles

Father in heaven, thank you for this opportunity that we have this morning to be able to gather together as a community of faith.

Lord, we don't want to take this privilege for granted.

The freedom that we have to assemble, to believe according to our conscience, to open the Word of God.

And we pray this morning that divine help would assist us through this process.

May the Holy Spirit impress our hearts and our minds.

May you specifically tailor these feeble words for every heart this morning.

We ask these things in the precious name of Jesus.

We're continuing in our series of messages that we've entitled Lessons from the Life of Paul.

And I invite you to open your Bibles to Acts chapter 2 and verse 40.

The Christian church was in the upper room, about 120 individuals that were gathered in that prayer meeting.

Book of Acts begins in a prayer vigil, a prayer session.

10 days, and on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit fell, and those disciples gathered in that upper room went out transformed from on high and Peter preaches a sermon in Acts chapter 2.

In Acts chapter 2 verse 40, and with many other words he testified and exhorted them saying, be saved from this perverse generation.

Then those who had gladly received his word were baptized on that day.

Now here's an interesting fact about demographics.

In Acts chapter 2, at the baptism, 99% of the church were ethnically Jewish.

You know, when you read the book of Acts you forget that.

Well, they were speaking in tongues and the reason why they were speaking in tongues were all these ethnic Jews from all over the world had gathered together in Jerusalem for the day of Pentecost.

But they were all Jews, they were speaking different languages because they were coming from their respective regions, but when they came into Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost and all these 3, 000 souls were added to the church, they were all Jews.

Now I put 99% on there because there might have been a Gentile or 2 that slipped in there, but I don't think so.

They were probably 100% Jews, and So you have this homogenous group that comprised the early Christian church.

They were all ethnically and religiously.

It's unique because you're ethnically a Jew, but you're also religiously a Jew as well.

Now think about the implications of this.

They all celebrated the same types of holidays.

They were all part of the same culture and this group of individuals were all circumcised.

Circumcision went all the way back to the days of Abraham and if you were a law abiding Jew, 8 days after you were born you were circumcised.

So the Christian church was not ethnically diverse in Acts chapter 2.

3, 000 people, and then you add 120 or so, about 3, 200 people comprised this new community, and they had church together.

Now this was about to dramatically change and this is the irony of church growth.

You know, we pray for new members, we pray for young families, we pray for all these things and Then they start coming in and you're like, wait a minute.

These people look differently than we do.

You find that sometimes There's a flight that takes place in some demographic congregations even here in North America because these cultures are merging and here you had a homogenous group, a group of people that were 100% for all intents and purposes from Judaism, Jewish, that became Christians and this was about to change because Paul, who was previously Saul the persecutor, had 2 key roles in this ethnic diversity trend that was going to take place.

And praise the Lord that the gospel went to the Gentiles.

You know, if you're Hispanic, you're a Gentile.

Jews make a very fraction of our world population and praise the Lord that the gospel did not just stay in Jerusalem or else we wouldn't be here.

Now when Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul, began persecuting the church, what it did was it drove people out of Jerusalem and they began preaching the gospel everywhere.

And Philip baptized the Ethiopian eunuch.

The first recorded Gentile baptism, and the gospel began to go to the Gentiles.

So Paul, as a persecutor, began to spread the gospel to the Gentile world, but then Paul the apostle was instrumental in this ethnic diversity that was to take place.

This is a map of Paul's first missionary journey, and you can see Jerusalem is way down here.

Paul's missionary journey went up here and he would go out and preach the gospel and set up churches, Gentile churches, churches that were not Jewish, Churches that had no Jewish context at all.

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Series

Lessons from the Life of Paul

Three Years in Arabia

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