46
Acts 9:1-6  THE CONVERSION OF SAUL OF TARSUS

Introduction:

	In this text one of Christianity’s greatest enemies got saved and became a 
Christian.  This man is Saul of the city of Tarsus.  This man, who had been one 
of Christianity’s greatest enemies became one of Christianity’s greatest 
promoters.  

I.  Saul continuing his persecution of Christians

	In our opening verse, Saul is not yet converted to Christianity.  He is 
everything but converted.  V. 1, “And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and 
slaughter against the disciples of the Lord...”  The persecution of Christians 
was a natural result of the persecution and crucifixion of the Christ.  Jesus 
had told His disciples, “If they persecute me, they will persecute you.”  
Therefore, after the crucifixion of Jesus, it was only a matter of time before 
the enemies of Jesus would persecute the followers of Jesus.  
	The persecution of Christians began as soon as the disciples of Jesus 
began to spread the news that Jesus had arisen from the dead.  It intensified 
after the disciples began to do miracles in the name of Jesus attracting great 
crowds of people to whom they witnessed that Jesus had arisen from the dead. 
	The persecution got much much worse after Saul of Tarsus played a part in 
the stoning of the deacon, Stephen.  Saul had not actually throne any stones at 
Stephen, but he had kept the garments of those who did.  His participation in 
the stoning of Stephen enflamed this man against the Christians and in Acts 
chapter eight we have the record of him making havoc of the church at Jerusalem, 
scattering them throughout Judea and Samaria.  Saul, of course, was not the only 
person persecuting the Christians.  Almost every member of the Jewish Sanhedrin 
Council were still quite actively persecuting Christians, but Saul of Tarsus had 
become the chief persecutor and he was the one who scattered the Jerusalem 
church.  
	It must have been to the deep regret of Saul that the scattering of the 
Christians just produced more Christians wherever they went.  For instance, the 
deacon, Philip had fled to Samaria where he won many people to Christ and 
started a new church there.  We will see evidence in our chapter that somebody 
had gone into the nation of Syria to the city of Damascus and did the same thing 
there that Philip had done in Samaria because there was now a church there in 
Damascus.      
	Verse 1 of our text says that he was still breathing out threatenings and 
slaughter against the  Christians.  That is, he was in a viscous rage verbally 
threatening them with death if they did not stop saying that Jesus is the Christ 
and that He had arisen from the dead.  We have no way of knowing just how many 
of those whom he had arrested had already been put to death.  

II.  Saul seeking permission to go to Damascus to arrest Christians

	Now that most of the Jerusalem church had either been arrested or had 
fled, Saul set out to try to arrest Christians in other cities and villages.  He 
chose the city of Damascus to begin this new effort to stamp out Christianity.  
V. 1b-2, “...went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus 
to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or 
women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.”  You can see that with Saul 
there was no mercy for the Christians.  These were not hardened criminals and 
would need to be bound in order to bring them to Jerusalem for trial before the 
Sanhedrin.  But he intended to bind both men and women and bring them to 
Jerusalem.  
	This is a pretty good indication of what he had already been doing to 
those in Jerusalem whom he had arrested.  He had been binding them like 
criminals. Rome was the ruling power over both the nation of Israel and also the 
nation of Syria.  The government of Rome had authorized the Sanhedrin Council to 
have jurisdiction over all religious matters in Israel.  So in Jerusalem the 
only authority he had needed to arrest the Christians there was a verbal 
approval of the high priest, who was the chief officer of the Sanhedrin Council.  
He had their approval and had arrested and bound many.
	But if Paul expected to arrest anyone in the foreign country of Syria, he 
needed legal papers authorizing him to do so.  So Saul went to the high priest 
and got the necessary legal papers.  Even though he would be going into a 
foreign nation, the Roman government, which ruled both nations, allowed the 
Sanhedrin Council to exercise over the religious activities of the Jewish 
synagogue which was located in Damascus.  Therefore, the high priest in 
Jerusalem, as chief officer of the Sanhedrin Council could write the papers 
which would legally authorize Saul to make arrests in Damascus as long as those 
arrests pertained to religious matters of the Jews.  
	Saul, of course, would have no trouble getting the papers from the high 
priest that he desired.  The high priest and the members of the Sanhedrin 
Council were just as anxious to put and end to Christianity as Saul was.  So he 
easily got papers which would authorize him to make arrests in Damascus.  
Apparently he had also been given some members of the Jerusalem temple guard to 
go with him to assist in making the arrests.  

III.  Saul seeing the Light

	V. 3-4, “And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there 
shined round about him a light from heaven.  And he fell to the earth, and heard 
a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?”  Saul and his 
group had traveled almost all the way to Damascus.  This means that they had 
traveled about 120 or 130 miles by foot when all of a sudden an exceedingly 
brilliant light had shined down upon them from heaven.  Luke says that Saul fell 
to the ground.  I get the impression that the light knocked him to the ground.  
	In addition to seeing the light, Saul also heard a voice.  He heard a 
voice from heaven speak to him and call him by his name.  The voice said, “Saul, 
Saul, why persecutest thou me?”  
	In I Corinthians 15 we learn that in addition to seeing the light and in 
addition to hearing the voice, Saul actually saw the person in heaven who spoke 
to him.  That person in heaven asked Saul a question.  He demanded of him, “Why 
are you persecuting me?”
	I think that Saul must have been astonished beyond measure.  This was most 
certainly the last thing that he would have expected to happen.  He had 
persecute many of the Christians and we have reason to believe that some of them 
had been killed.  If they had not been killed by Saul’s own hands, they must 
surely have been killed as a result of the arrest that had been made by him.  In 
all probability they had been tried by the Sanhedrin Council and stoned to death 
as Stephen had been.  Now just which one of those whom he had arrested and who 
had been killed could be talking to him from heaven?  How in the world could any 
of them be responsible for this great light?  And how could any of them talk to 
him from heaven?  Saul was stunned.  
	Before Saul could really answer the question, he needed to know who was 
talking to him.  V. 5, “And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am 
Jesus whom thou persecutest...”  Now momentarily Saul may have thought, “This 
cannot  be!”  Jesus had been crucified.  He cannot be talking to me!”  But He 
was!  How could Saul deny it and say, “No!  You’re not Jesus!  You cannot be!  
You have been crucified!  You’re dead”?  It was Jesus.  He said so and Saul 
could not deny it.  
	Again Saul’s mind must have been awhirl.  If Jesus was alive in heaven 
talking to him, calling him by name and demanding to know why he was being 
persecuted, this means that the Christians are right.  This means that Jesus is 
the Christ and that He has arisen from the grave as they said.  It means that 
Jesus did return back to heaven as they said that He did.  It means that Jesus 
is the Son of God as they said He is.  It means that Jesus did die of the cross 
to save sinners and they said He did.  
	It was at that point of time that Saul accepted the truth that Jesus is 
the Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of men.  He trusted Jesus to be his own 
Savior.  We know that he trusted Jesus at this time because later when the 
Philippian  jailer asked, “What must I do to be saved,” he said, “Believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”  Saul believed in Jesus as the 
Christ and he got saved.  That is how Saul got saved and that is why he told the 
Philippian jailer that he needed to believe in Jesus so that he would get saved.  
	(V. 5), “...[it is] hard for thee to kick against the pricks.”  “To kick 
against the pricks” is an expression that comes from the use of an ox goad.  An 
ox goad was a sharp stick which was used to goad an oxen into going where he did 
not want to go.  Sometimes an ox would stubbornly refuse to go where his owner 
was trying to get him to go.  In that case the owner would prod him with the 
sharp point of the goad in order to get him to obey the master.  If the ox still 
rebelled and tried to kick against the goad, the goad would  stick him all the 
more.  
	In essence what the Lord is telling Saul is that he has stubbornly 
resisted the Lord who was trying to get him to put his faith and trust in Jesus.  
When the Lord would prod Saul with the Holy Spirit, Saul would rebel against the 
calling of the Holy Spirit and kick against the convicting power of the Spirit.  
But the more he rebelled and kicked, the more painful to him was the convicting 
work of the Holy Spirit.  

IV.  Saul’s surrender to Jesus after he was saved 

		V. 6, “And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou 
have me to do? And the Lord [said] unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it 
shall be told thee what thou must do.”  Saul had already come to believe that he 
had been wrong and that Jesus is the Christ.  He had now changed his mind and 
had trusted Jesus as his own Savior.  But now as a new born Christian, he asked 
the Lord in effect, “Now that I am saved, what do you want me to do?”
	It was at this point that Saul surrendered his will to the Lord Jesus 
Christ.  He was fully convinced that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and was 
saved.  He was now ready to give his life in service to Jesus.  Luke said that 
Saul was trembling.  He was shaking like a leaf when he said to Jesus, “Lord, 
what wilt thou have me to do?”  
	His answer was brief and to the point.  Jesus said,   “You get up.  Get on 
you feet and you go on into the city of Damascus.  But do not go to the Jewish 
synagogue seeking to arrest any Christians.  You just go into the city and I 
will have someone to contact you  and tell you what I want you to do.”

V.  Some things I want to point out to you 

	As we draw near to the close of this service, let me point out a few 
things to you.  The first thing I want to point out to you is that the Lord did 
not easily give up on Saul.  In spite of Saul’s rebellious attitude toward Him, 
He loved Saul and wanted to see Saul saved.  Jesus was the One who had sent the 
Holy Spirit to Saul and to prick his conscience and to prick his heart.  The 
Lord will not force anybody to trust in Jesus and be saved, but He will make it 
difficult for one to refuse to do so.  He will convict his heart by the Holy 
Spirit and make one to know that he really needs to be saved.  He will also use 
difficult situations in life to make one to realize that he needs to be saved.  
He may not strike one down with a light from heaven.  He may not speak to from 
heaven bringing accusations against him.  But He really loves each person to be 
saved and He will give him every opportunity to be saved.  
	Another thing I want to point out concerning the unsaved is that he will 
face Jesus one way or the other.  He will either call upon Jesus here in this 
lifetime and trust Him to save his soul, or else he will stand unsaved before 
Jesus in judgment and be sentenced to the Lake of Fire and Brimstone.  One way 
or the other he is going to know that Jesus is the Son of God and that Jesus is 
Supreme.  
	Another thing I want to point out to you is that salvation is totally by 
the grace of God.  “Grace” means “Getting something you did not earn and do not 
deserve.”  The Lord saved Saul of Tarsus and it is absolutely certain that this 
man did not deserved to be saved.  He had been persecuting Christians.  He had 
been putting them in jail.  He had been instrumental in some of them being put 
to death.  He had scattered many of them and driven them from their homes.  If 
there was ever any man who did not deserve to be saved it was Saul of Tarsus.  
Later on he said, “This is a faithful statement and worthy of all acceptation 
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.”  He 
considered himself to be the chief of sinners.  He acknowledged that he did not 
deserve to be saved.  But the Lord saved his soul by grace.  
	In Ephesians 2:8 that same man tells us that this is the only way that 
anybody can get saved.  He said, “For by grace are ye saved through faith and 
that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.  Saul, himself, is an example of 
that.  In the very next verse he said, “Not of works lest any man should boast.”
	But there is one more thing I want to point out to you.  After one gets 
saved, Jesus wants that individual to serve him.  Paul said, “Lord, what wilt 
thou have me to do?” and the Lord said, “You go into the city and you will be 
told what I want you to do.”  I think it is safe to say to you that if you are 
saved and if you are willing to do what the Lord will have you to do, you just 
keep going to church and hearing the word of God preached to you and it will be 
revealed to you what the Lord would have you to do.  

Conclusion:

	For you there are two big questions.  The first is:  Are you willing to 
put you faith and your trust in Jesus Christ to save your soul?  Are you willing 
to trust  the Son of God to save your soul and get you into heaven?  If so, will 
you come this morning and get this matter settled with God?  Come and trust 
Jesus to save your soul?  
	The question is:  Are you willing to do what the Lord would have you to 
do?  Are  you willing to be baptized?  If so, then come and present yourself to 
the church as a candidate for baptism. 
	Are you willing to straighten up your life and start living as a Christian 
should live.  
	If the Lord is trying to get you to move your membership to Pleasant Hill 
are you willing to do so?  If so, are you ready to do so this morning?