We have shared thus far some wonderful stories of what conversion is and how the Holy Spirit lit a great fire, great conviction was generated by the power of the Holt Spirit, thousands were brought into the kingdom of God, coming out of death into life and from darkness into light, and from Satan to God! Few months after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which happened on the day of the Feast of Pentecost, ten days after Jesus was taken to heaven, this happened in Jerusalem the where the Church grew to five thousand souls. This obviously spurred the Jews to try and stop it. So, coming back to Saul of Tarsus, having now letters from the high priest giving him ‘carte-blanche’, to do what he wanted, left Jerusalem to go to Damascus! It was quite a journey, it would take at least a week, if not more? For Saul of Tarsus was not alone, he could have had quite an imposing company, even temple guards for their safety; and he planned to bring a lot of people back to Jerusalem!

It all pointed to some dangerous times for the Christians, yet God, as ever, was master of the situation, all that this evil people were concocting so as to make a great show of strength and authority, was allowed of the Lord. After few days as Saul of Tarsus and his mob were nearing Damascus, this is what happened, for it is written! ‘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? (Acts 9: 3-4) In the light of such a divine manifestation of Jesus Christ, will show how foolish it is for men to try and stop torrents of living waters as they sweep through the land in the power of the Spirit! Only fools pit themselves against God and his anointed!

Such an intervention from Jesus Christ was most impressive and unexpected, Jesus hit Saul right between the eyes! This great man, this hater of Christ and his disciples, sought to get letters of authority from mortal men, traveling on with an evil intent, hatred  burning in his heart, suddenly, struck down, humbled, mixed up, blind and in fear, He realised that He was dealing with somebody BIG and asked Him: ‘Who are you LORD?’ The Lord replied; I am Jesus Whom you persecute. It is hard for you to kick against the pricks! And he trembling, and astonished said: ‘LORD, what will you have me to do? Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what to do…So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything! (Acts 9: 5-9) He needed that time to come to terms with what happened to him! Now, this is where I end all that is written about Saul of Tarsus. If you have a Bible you might want to read the rest of Saul’s amazing conversion! If so turn to Acts chapter nine. I wrote earlier that God destroyed Saul of Tarsus, He did, by changing Him from within, he would never be this proud, hateful pharisee.

From then on Saul is better known as Paul, the amazing apostle of Christ that he became. He did not go through special schools of Theology; he, no doubt had done something like that to become the persecutor that he was. All I wanted to say about Saul of Tarsus was to show that God by His grace can turn a lion, ready to tear up and destroy, and convert him into a lamb! Him God, in His great mercy, chose to be a servant of Jesus Christ, as he says, ‘from his mother’s womb’! How mighty and yet gracious is the God that all true Christians know and serve! Now, as the apostle Paul, he says a lot about the man he was, and the man He became! Writing to the Galatians, what he says shows that he was not ashamed to speak about his past life, he did not hide that with hate he became a persecutor of the Church, but he did so to give glory to His Lord and Master who changed him and made him man he became by the grace of God: ‘For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the Church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. BUT when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the gentiles. I did not consult any man’ (Galatians 1: 13-16) No, He went back to Tarsus for many years, until led by the Holy Spirit, Barnabas went to Tarsus  and brought him back to Antioch where they ministered for a whole year and taught together a great number of people!