Title Change of direction / Acts 9:1-9
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Acts 9:1-9, Philippians 3:5-9
Sometimes you go the wrong way along the way. Then we change direction. You turn around and go back the way you came. To change direction, three things must happen at the same time. Pause, turn around, go forward. Faith is like a change of direction. This is because faith is to turn from the path of destruction to the path of life, and to turn from the path of darkness to the path of light. To believe in Jesus as the Savior and to live a Christian life can be said to be a life that has achieved this change of direction. Receiving Jesus as the Savior is a change of direction and conversion, because it is a change of life to a life of obedience to Jesus.
In today's text, we read the story of a man who met the risen Jesus in Damascus and was transformed. This conversion of Paul was a landmark event in which the persecutor became an evangelist for Paul, and it was a historic event in which the gospel spread to the world from the church perspective. All in all, it was a major turning point.
Paul's original name was Saul. Saul means 'seeking', and Paul means 'little one'. Just as Saul became Paul, God made a great change in his life through the Holy Spirit and caused a change of direction in his life.
Pause / The Holy Spirit stopped Paul from his physical life until now and turned him into a life of faith. Originally, Paul was a man who had nothing to be envious of in the flesh. Paul was one of the few Jews with Roman citizenship. Paul was born and raised in a city called 'Dasso', which can be said to be the center of Hellenism at that time. This tells us that he grew up here learning them in the best academic atmosphere of the time. So Paul was able to freely speak Greek, the standard language of the world at the time. Paul also went to Israel to study and received a thorough education in the law under Gamaliel, the most famous Jewish rabbi at the time. His appearance was not very good, but his qualities were outstanding in every way. He was an impeccable genius with a sharp intellect, tireless passion, sincerity, courage, and warm humanity.
Paul was proud of himself, and he was proud of himself. He always considered his judgment to be correct and his actions were always justified. He was always logical and confident with anyone. There was also passion and zeal to get rid of the task once decided. In the eyes of Paul, who was a legalist, Christians were seen as anti-Semitic and heretics who violated the law. So, relying on the power of the established forces at the time, he took the lead in ruthlessly oppressing Christians.
A prime example of this is the incident that caused Stephen to be martyred. It can be said that Paul was the one who instigated Stephen's death and took the lead. But he was actually shocked to see Stevan die. Because the more thoroughly he lives in the law, the darker his heart and the heavier his heart is. The image of Stephen, who was stoned to death and peacefully praying for the forgiveness of those who attacked him, was engraved deep in his heart. is. But for that reason, he decided to increase his momentum and persecute those who believed in Jesus. Perhaps he did it more because he wanted to erase that shock.
However, the Holy Spirit turned and changed Paul's life at once. He made the persecutor become a preacher.
Turning back / The Holy Spirit brought Paul back to a life of grace. He changed the direction of Paul, who was living with a self-centered thought and life. As before, Paul gets a commission from the high priest to arrest the Jesuits and runs to Damascus to live. Damascus -- Damascus, the present-day capital of Syria. Nearly arriving at this Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven more powerful than the sun was pouring down on Paul. Paul rolls off his horse and falls to the side of the road. A voice was heard.
“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
Astonished, Paul answers.
'Lord, who are you?'
'I am the Jesus you are persecuting'
Paul got up and opened his eyes, but he could not see anything. From then on, Paul's eyes deteriorated to the point that he could not write for the rest of his life. It can be said that the eyes of the body have been darkened, and the eyes of the spirit have been opened. Here Paul experienced the collapse of the entire life he had built up until now. Born as a Jew, he studied the law under Gamaliel, a prestigious family at the time, grew up in Tarsus, acquired the highest civilization of Greece, and even acquired Roman citizenship, which is rare for a Jew. It collapsed here.
All his pride and wickedness were destroyed. I realized that everything I had done in the past was a terrible sin. I came to realize how shameful and sinful it is before God to live a life of arrogance, believing only in one's own intellectual ability, and not realizing the correct meaning of the Word by thinking that only one's own judgment is correct. From then on, for three days, you will spend the time of penance in tears. These three days of penance were a time when his self was broken and a turning point in his life to be reborn. After that, they go to the Arabian desert, and through a time of deep prayer, they dismantle their past and establish themselves anew in Christ.
In this way, after meeting the resurrected Jesus in Damascus, Paul started his life from scratch. He decides to throw away all his knowledge, beliefs, and experiences. And the center, direction, and goal of his life were re-established in Jesus. It was a change of direction in life.
Paul himself confessed:
I was circumcised on the eighth day, of the house of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin.
A Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee as to the law,
For zeal, he persecuted the church; for the righteousness of the law he was blameless.
But whatever was useful to me
For the sake of Christ I count all things as harm, and also all things as harm.
For the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord is the noblest.
I lost everything for him and counted it as dung.
that you may gain Christ and be found in him... Philippians 3:5-9
Moving forward / The Holy Spirit changed us from a self-centered life to a life of mission. Faith is not about turning back, it's about what kind of life you go forward with. You say you made a mistake every day, but if there is no change, you cannot say that you realized your mistake. Our faith should also be looked at in that respect.
Paul paused, turned and moved forward into a life of mission. Paul's conversion event makes us realize how careful the Lord is when God uses people. Although Jesus made the 12 disciples and entrusted them with the gospel ministry, a special vessel was needed to spread the gospel to the world. We needed talented people who have passion, know the world, know bonds, and are zealous for God. It was Paul who perfectly met God's requirements. But the Lord waited for Paul to ripen. He waited for him to learn the language, the culture, the Bible, and the world. He left his pride, his persecution, and his wickedness. And when the time came, he broke it at once.
Here, the uplifting, confident, and arrogant Saul, who had never been an idiot, became Paul. And he became an apostle who spread the gospel to the world. Paul confessed that he would throw away all the knowledge he had known so far, but in reality, God allowed him to use all of his conditions. He even allowed his Roman citizenship to be used when needed.
When God uses people, he always does. Moses acquired the best knowledge of the royal court while acting as an Egyptian royalty in Egypt. However, as I was driven into the wilderness and tending sheep, I came to know the characteristics of the flock and came to know the wilderness. If I had just lived like that, I would have ended up as a simple shepherd. However, when he was led by God's hand and became a servant of God, the knowledge of the royal palace, the knowledge of the wilderness, and the experience of shepherding became a tool that was greatly used to lead the Israelites.
When we do not know God, all the knowledge and experience we have acquired in the world is used for our own success and achievement, sometimes as an instrument of pride, sometimes as an instrument of sin, but when we know God and believe in God, all of them are It is to testify to God and be usefully used for God's work.
If Paul had not met the Lord of the Resurrection like this, he would have become a persecutor and a violent person whose knowledge, background, and passion made him more and more arrogant and arrogant. However, his life changed when he met Jesus.
Paul confesses this about his life:
I have been crucified with Christ
Therefore, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.
Now I live in the flesh, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
To live by faith in the Son of God. Galatians 2:20
We pray that the Holy Spirit will inspire us this Lent and transform us from a carnal life to a life of faith, a life of selfishness to a life of grace, and a life of greed to a life of mission. I pray that the Holy Spirit will inspire us so that Lent will be the turning point in which we crucify the old man and bring Christ to life in us.
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