About this sermon
Saul of Tarsus persecuted the church, thinking he served God, until the risen Jesus stopped him on the Damascus road. Writing to Timothy, Paul calls himself a former blasphemer and the foremost of sinners, yet he received mercy so that Christ Jesus might display his perfect patience as an example to those who would believe. His conversion is a token of grace: it humbles the self-righteous and comforts those who think themselves too sinful to be forgiven. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
Sermon transcript
Let us open in God’s Word to Acts chapter 9. We’ll be reading Acts chapter 9, 1 through 22, and then we will continue with working through 1 Timothy. That’s 1 Timothy 1, 12 to 16. Let us give ear to God’s Word. Acts chapter 9. Now Saul, still breathing out threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him And he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
But get up and enter this city, and it will be told you what you must do. The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing, and leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank. Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias, and he said, Lord, here I am, Lord, And the Lord said to him, get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.
But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name. But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine, to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake.
So Ananias departed and entered the house, and 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. And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he got up and was baptized. And he took bread, and he took food, and was strengthened.
Now for several days he was with the disciples who were at Damascus. And immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, He is the Son of God. All those hearing him continued to be amazed and were saying, is this not he who in Jerusalem destroyed those who called on his name? And who had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests? But Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived at Damascus by proving that this Jesus is the Christ. Let us turn then to 1st Timothy, where we will read 1st Timothy 1. I will read to 17. I will read through 17. Hear the word of God.
I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has strengthened me because he considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was more than abundant with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason, I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate his perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in him for eternal life. Now, to the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God is forever. Let us pray. Our gracious God, we ask that you would renew us by the preaching of your word. We ask that you would encourage us by the assurance that can be had of people’s faith, the assurance of salvation, the assurance of justification. We ask that progressive sanctification would continue today. We ask that we might be drawn to Christ and made more like the image of Christ. May we be sanctified, we, the adopted sons and daughters of you, the Heavenly Father. May it happen through your chief means, namely the preached word. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
In past weeks, we have been working through 1 Timothy. And what I have been trying to propose as a thesis, what I’ve been trying to prove to people is that the Word of God is central in the Timothy letters. Why? Because the Word of God is all that is going to be left when the second generation of believers come because the apostles are dying off. So, what I’ve been saying is that Timothy is word-based.
It is law-based. And in the case of the people who are writing this, in the case of Paul, we would say that this is very much true of the Old Testament. That the faith of Jesus Christ, the faith of Christians, is the faith of the Old Testament. But as the apostles move on in their lives and their ministry, they’re adding to the canon of Scripture, the law, is needed and useful, it is the right thing to be used in evangelism. That’s what we’ve seen in previous weeks. The law is what is used to convict sinners, to show their need for Christ. Sinners do not need gimmicks, they do not need non-redemptive stories, they need the story of Genesis on to Malachi, and ultimately they need the story from Matthew to Revelation as well.
But this week we come to our text, we come to our portion which is about Paul himself. This week is about Paul’s conversion life. Surely, Paul’s life was important to Timothy. Otherwise, Paul would not have given it. But we might ask ourselves, what need do we have to major in, to know a lot about the life of Paul? Well, it is very important to us. It is very important to understand the life of Paul, and I hope we will see that when we finish today I would break up our portion, our text, into four different parts. First, we would look at Paul’s past life.
Paul’s past life, this is verse 13. Second, we would have Paul’s present life, which is 12 and 13. There is some overlap between these. We also have, number three, Christ’s saving work, which is 5 and 14. And then we also have God’s reasons, which is 16. God’s reasons,
16. So we first look then at Paul’s past life. Look what he says in verse 13.
Even though I was formerly a blasphemer and persecutor and a violent aggressor, yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. Our first reading was from Acts chapter 9. I hope you know the text of Acts chapter 9. I hope you find much comfort there. And I hope you visit that and revisit that portion of God’s word. For there we see God’s amazing grace to one man, to Paul.
There he was, this persecutor. This horrible man, he was a murderer, and he was persecuting the church. He was standing in the way of the church of God. He was standing in the way of the advancement of the kingdom. He was locking up Christians. He was even there when Stephen was martyred. We see that just two chapters before in Acts chapter 7. This was a horrible man, Paul, and also called Saul. on other parts.
But there he is. He’s on his way to persecute some more Christians. And what happens? He is struck down. He has a conversation with Jesus Christ, not even knowing who Jesus Christ was. And at that point, his life was changed. And also, we might say that the church of Jesus Christ was changed forever. But before that, we see what was really going on with Paul.
Listen to what Jesus says. Listen to what Jesus predicted in John chapter 16. It says, They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you. to think that he is offering service to God. Jesus said it, therefore it’s true, right? Well, Jesus said it and it came true. That Jesus said that there will be those who will seek to kill you and they will think that they are serving God.
We see that with Paul. Paul wasn’t doing this to be a Satanist. He wasn’t doing this to be an atheist. He was doing this so he thought to defend the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of Moses and the God of David. Paul did this. Paul was a privileged man. He was one who came up under Gamaliel, a very popular and good rabbi. He came from good parents. He was of good stock.
But there he was persecuting the church. And so he thought, protecting the faith. And though he thought he was serving God, how does he see his former life? He sees it as formerly a blasphemer and persecutor and a violent aggressor. This may be strange to us if we really know the life of Paul and the letters of Paul. There he’s saying he is a blasphemer.
It’s so different than another portion of God’s word, another portion of Paul’s letters where he speaks differently, almost highly of his former life, how good he was. Listen to what he says in Philippians chapter three. Verse 4, he says, if anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised the eighth day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness which is under the law, blameless. So we have, on one hand, he’s saying, I am blameless. I was blameless before I came to Christ. And then on the other hand, he’s saying, I was a blasphemer. What are we to make of this? Is he not sure how to assess his own previous life? Well, the answer is quite simple.
No person, no man could lay a charge against Paul for breaking any one of the law. But God could bring a charge because even while he thought he was obeying God, he was blaspheming God because he was not truly in Christ and because he was using the law in an unlawful way. He was using it for advancement, to gain his own vindication.
But he understands now that he can’t be vindicated by that. But in his previous life, in his pre-conversion life, we could say that Paul was not a good Samaritan. He was not looking after the good of the people around him, especially those who were Christians. He was ignorant and he was in unbelief. This is a culpable ignorance. It is a guilty ignorance that he had. his former life. Though he thought it was right and true, it was all a mirage. It was all a phony. That’s his past life. But then we move on to Paul’s present life, looking at 12 and at 15. Look what he says in verse 12.
This is present tense. He says, I thank Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, who has strengthened me. I am presently strengthened Because he considered me faithful. He has considered me faithful and he has put me into service. And he presently is in service. He also says in verse 13 that he is a recipient of mercy. He understands how sinful he was. And really, how sinful he is. But God has given mercy, unmerited favor, gracious kindness. But he understands now. what happens to sinners.
He understands how close he was. It’s almost as if he could smell the sulfur of Sodom about to be poured down upon him. It’s almost as if the ground was about to open up as it did during Korah’s rebellion and just consume him. He was that close. He was on the road to destruction. But he was shown grace. He was shown kindness.
He says in verse 15 that he is the chief of sinners, or as our translation in the pew says, I was the foremost of sinners, or I am the foremost of sinners. But he knows that Jesus Christ came in the world to save sinners. What glorious words. but he understands how sinful he was. What sinner, when he repents, when she repents, does not feel like the chief of sinners? Do you think David felt any different when he Pen those words. Psalm 51, which we read and which we sang. Surely he knew that he was the chief of sinners or at least felt himself to be so.
Think of the story of the publican and the tax collector and the Pharisee. There is one man looking down upon another saying, thank you, God, that I’m not like that person. Look at all the things I do. I fast X times a day and I do this and I do that. And this other man could not look up to heaven, but just beat his breast and say, have mercy upon me, a sinner. Surely that publican felt the same way and understood himself to be chief of sinners. Who could think any different when they repent?
You may be familiar with the story of William Wilberforce and of John Newton. William Wilberforce fought the slave trade in Britain and John Newton wrote the song Amazing Grace, a beautiful song that many believers take great comfort in. In 2006, there was a movie by the same name called Amazing Grace. And I don’t know how accurate it was, but John Newton had something to say about his former life and about God’s amazing grace.
He looked back with great regret on being a slave trader. In tears, John Newton says, I wish I could remember all their names. My 20,000 ghosts, they all had names, beautiful African names. We’d call them with just grunts, just noises. We were apes. They were human. They haunted him.
Surely that is true of the true John Newton. And how can it be any different for Paul? Surely the mind is like a camera, and it takes pictures of the good and of the bad. And sometimes those memories are so hard to erase. And think of Paul as he watches. Stephen stoned as he’s watching families being taken one from another, some stoned, some killed in other ways, some taken off to prison. Why?
Because they say Jesus is Lord and they will not say Caesar is Lord. They will not blaspheme. Paul knew the grace of God and he knew his own sinfulness. But we look now at Christ’s saving work. Moving back to verse 5, which I think is just a central verse in the whole epistle. The goal. The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and a sincere heart. What Paul is saying is that You, Timothy, must preach the Word, and the goal that you must have is that people would be converted and have love, that preachers would have love, and that they would preach from a good conscience and from a sincere faith. That is the goal.
And look at what he says in verse 14. He was once without love and without all those things, and now he has it. As a preacher of grace, he says, it is a… No, 14, it says, and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant with the faith and love which are found in Christ. Notice, faith and love matching up. with verse 5. 5 and 14 being companion verses. Paul understands that God’s saving work is in action. God is saving sinners. Christ died for sinners and God is saving sinners.
But that ministry, the preacher’s ministry and Paul’s ministry is going to come through suffering, suffer, suffering unto glory. Don’t understand that Paul is just grandstanding when he talks about himself. He’s not making himself the center of attention, though he’s talking about his autobiography. He’s speaking of Christ and of his goodness and of his grace, but he knows. that this must come through suffering.
Look what Acts chapter 9, 15. Notice those words. Often we forget them. The Lord said to Ananias, he, Paul, is a chosen instrument of mine to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake.
Paul is ordained as an apostle to suffering. And this is no different than the rest of the apostles and the rest of the disciples at that time, for they understood similarly. for they were persecuted and flogged, and they took joy in it, not because they loved pain, but they understood that they were suffering unto glory. In Acts chapter five, some Christians are corralled, and they’re told you must not speak in this name, and look what Acts chapter five, verse 40. They took his advice, that’s Gamaliel’s advice, and after calling the apostles in, they flogged them and ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and then released them. So they went on their way from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for his name. The apostolic ministry was a ministry of suffering and of shame, but suffering unto glory. How could it be any different for other believers? Surely it is, in varying degrees, but he was called to suffering. Though he was one who has received grace, though he has received faith and love as gifts, Why did God do this? Why did God save Paul?
And why should we care? Why is it important to us? Verse 16, our last section, God’s reasons. Just to review, let’s read it together. Yet for this reason, I found mercy so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate his perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in him for eternal life. It matters to Timothy. It ought to matter to us. How do we know the great patience of God? We know it in many ways.
One of them is through the life of Paul. You know God’s kindness through Paul’s story. We know the patience of God and we take comfort in the fact that God is patient with sinners who fail. He is patient with sinners who continue to fail and continue to come to Him repentant.
But as I’ve said earlier, the focus of Paul’s letters to Timothy is Scripture. Paul understands that he is writing scripture. He understands that he is writing something that will be added to the canon and handed down to future generations. But there are other reasons.
Paul is special. And I don’t want you to think that Paul is a super Christian that we can never attain to, nothing like that. But Paul is a specific, unique individual like none other. How is that? Paul gives us great comfort because of God’s patience, because Paul is a spoiler. What do I mean by that? Paul is a spoiler, both to the self-righteous and to those who would think that they’re too horrible for God. Think of those who would think themselves good enough for God, think that they’re good enough to measure up. What does Paul say to that?
You think you’re good enough to go to heaven? I was better, Philippians 3. and I wasn’t worthy of it. You think you’re horrible? You think that you are so unworthy that God could never forgive my sins? What’s Paul’s answer? I was worse. He’s a spoiler for either one. Why?
Because God comes to save sinners. That is why this man must understand why he must suffer for Jesus Christ, that he might provide challenge to those who would be self-righteous, and that he might give comfort to those who would feel themselves so lowly that they cannot be forgiven. Forgiving grace is offered to all people, and it must be. Paul, as I’ve said, is adding to Scripture.
Think of Moses. Think of David. We have a tendency to put these men up on a pedestal. Were they super Jews? Not at all. This is what God has been doing from the beginning. Think of Moses. He murdered a man. And God showed him grace. And he was adding to scripture. Think of David. Had a man murdered. Took his wife. God forgives him, too. How amazing. And then he adds to the canon of Scripture. What amazing grace. The same thing with Paul.
Paul becomes recipient of divine revelation. And we could even say that Paul, as the lone apostle to become the primary interpreter, divinely inspired interpreter of divine revelation, that which had become in the past reading and interpreting the Old Testament. He is, let me just repeat that, the recipient of revelation and interpreter of revelation. Surely the apostles were all these, but he in a specific and in a special way So here it is, Paul’s testimony and the comfort and the challenge that comes to us.
Well, what about your story? Ought we to have times in church where we would have people come forward and tell their story, their story of God’s grace? Well, I don’t think that that’s been given to us as an element of worship. When we talk about elements of worship, that is, we look at what has God told us to do in worship, where to sing, where to read, to preach, to pray, to do a number of things. I don’t see that as a part of a worship service.
This testimony that is given to us through Paul is a divinely inspired testimony. So in one sense, though we all have a story to tell, we really need in worship to hear Paul’s story. You see, there’s a difference between our story and Paul’s. Paul’s is divinely inspired.
It is a product and a part of special redemptive revelation. It’s a part of supernatural revelation. But we live in a time of common grace wherein what happens to us is not adding to scripture. So there’s a difference. There’s a difference between special supernatural revelation and general revelation. General revelation is just God revealing himself in a non-redemptive, non-supernatural way. Theologians would say, and I think on good grounds, even Berkhoff in his intro to systematic theology on page 128 talks about the fact that Prior to the fall, this distinction between general and special revelation, they were together, they were one. All of the world revealed God in a supernatural way, in a special revelatory way.
There is a time coming when that will be restored and even greater, and that will be in heaven. no longer will special and general revelation be separated. They will be put together. And in heaven, we will give testimony to God’s grace and everything will be both special and general revelation. And in heaven for eternity, we will give testimony of God’s grace, and we will sing of his mighty acts of salvation in redemption, in history, and also applied to your heart and to your mind. At that time, we will give testimony as Paul has. May we long for that day. Let us pray.
Most gracious God, we thank you for the love that you have showered down upon Paul and that you have given to us. We thank you for the clear distinction between that which is special and revelatory, that which is your inspired and errant word, and also the world around us that testifies of you in a general way.
We thank you that no sinner can say, I am too horrible to come to Christ, for you are willing, able, and powerful enough to forgive. And we know that none can say, I am good enough. For none is good enough. For all have fallen short, have missed the mark.
We lift up the name of Jesus, thankful for the testimony of Paul, and thankful for an eternity to worship Paul’s God, and David’s God, and Moses’ God, the one who forgives the worst of sinners, even murderers, the one who gives us amazing grace. In the name of Jesus, we do pray, amen.
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