Paul's Life Before
Conversion; Gal. 1:13-14
Paul says in verses 11
that this gospel is not according to man. This has to do with something that is
not agreeable with and not in line with the standards of human thinking or
human viewpoint. By way of application, three important observations:
a) The gospel is a unique message proclaimed a unique
way. Do not denigrate the gospel or insult God by reducing the gospel to
merchandise being sold in the street. Unfortunately that is what is happening
today in most churches and across the air waves of the radio and television.
They are adopting methods for proclaiming the gospel and methods for evangelism
that have more to do with Madison Avenue and less to do with dependence upon
the power of God and the Holy Spirit. Do not reduce the Scriptures to common commerce.
We are not out there to sell it. The techniques of evangelism are not the
techniques of salesmanship.
b) Evangelism is not to be conducted according to the
principles of sociology. We have lost three battles in the last century: the
battle s over evolution, psychology (which claims to be authoritative for all
matters related to the soul. But the Bible claims exclusive authority in that
area), and sociology (let’s go out and take surveys; let’s understand
principles of how a society and a culture operates and then use those
principles in order to develop our methods for planting churches, witnessing
and evangelism).
c) Evangelism is not manipulation. E.g. Charles Finney
who introduced a whole host of procedures and methods (altar calls, etc.) for
evangelism designed to get people to make external professions of faith. God
has given every human being volition. They can be
positive and accept the gospel or they can be negative and reject the gospel.
We can pray that God will make the gospel clear to someone, that He would put
enough pressure on a person’s life to put them in a position where they would
be more receptive to the gospel, but God is not going to reach down inside that
person and switch him over to positive and make them believe the gospel. God is
going to respect their individual freedom and volition.
Galatians
Galatians
It is important for us to
understand the whole concept in Scripture of testimony. Today we have diluted
the concept to some kind of personal subjective experience. When we sit down to
witness to somebody we talk about “sharing our faith” or “what Jesus did for
me.” That is not the issue. In the Gospel of John, John wrote that Jesus Christ
performed all these signs “that you may know that Jesus is the Christ, and by
believing you might have life through His name.” Over and over again John
relies on objective signs, things that Jesus did which demonstrated His deity;
he relies on things that Jesus said, because that is objective, and he is going
to rely upon seven different objective witnesses to who Jesus is and what He
claims to be. So all testimony is related to something that
is objective and not subjective. That doesn’t mean there aren’t
subjective aspects; there are. But what it means is that the basis for our
authority in the gospel is not the subjective but the objective; that which is
clearly discernable by one and all.
“… in Judaism, how I used
to persecute the
Paul’s life prior to his conversion
1) Paul was born in the town of
2) When we talk about Paul’s childhood and his background
we know that he called himself a Hebrew of the Hebrews. This is an interesting
phrase found in Philippians chapter three. We also know that Paul was a Roman
citizen. He was born a Roman citizen which was an incredibly prestigious position.
There weren’t that many people in
3) When he was a fairly young child we know that he was
sent to
4) When Paul is first introduced to us it is in
connection with the martyrdom of Stephen and the persecution that followed in
approximately 35 AD. He was probably about 30 years of age and therefore
just a few years younger than our Lord. If he was in
5) After Stephen’s stoning he becomes the chief
persecutor of the church. Acts 8:3; Acts 22:4 “I persecuted this Way to the
death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons, [5] as also the high priest and all the Council of the
elders can testify. From them I also received letters to the brethren, and
started off for
Galatians
In verses 15-17 we have an evidence from Paul’s conversion and his conduct
immediately after that. Galatians 1:15 NASB “But when God, who had
set me apart {even} from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was
pleased [16] to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the
Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, [17] nor did I go
up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went away to
Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus.” In these three verses he is going
to establish the point that his conversion was on the basis of an appearance by
the Lord Jesus Christ to him on the road to Damascus, it did not come through
men. After that he had no contact with the apostles. The point he is making is
that the message he is proclaiming is one that came directly from God.
The account of how Paul came to know the Lord in Acts
9
Acts 9:1 NASB “Now
Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord,
went to the high priest,
Saul is not directly
persecuting the Lord Jesus Christ, he is persecuting
believers who are the body of Christ. So if anybody does to us they are doing
the same to the Lord. Saul gets the point immediately. The self-revelation of
Jesus Christ in all of His Shekinah glory means that
Saul recognises at that instant that Jesus is all that He claimed to be; He is
the saviour of the world. This is indicated by Paul’s response because he said
[5] “And he said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’” Jesus is termed Lord there to signify
His deity, and Paul recognises that. “And He {said,} ‘I am Jesus whom you are
persecuting,
Acts 9:7
NASB “The men who traveled with him stood
speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one.” What happens here is not subjective. It was not just
a subjective religious experience on the part of the apostle Paul. The idea is
fraudulent because if we are honest with what the Scripture says, while the men
who were with him did not understand what Jesus said and could not hear the
specific words because it was an appearance only for the apostle Paul, they saw
the light and they heard a voice. That means something happened in space-time
history that was objective and real. It wasn’t something happening only inside
the mind of Paul. God does not do anything privately or subjectively that He
does not verify and substantiate objectively in the real world of space-time
history. Acts 9:8 NASB “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
In Acts 26 Paul is giving
his defence before Herod Agrippa. Acts 26:1 NASB “Agrippa
said to Paul, ‘You are permitted to speak for yourself.’ Then Paul
stretched out his hand and {proceeded} to make his defense.”
The Greek word translated “defense” is apologia [a)pologia], the word from which we get our English word “apology.”
But the Greek word doesn’t mean apology, it is a technical, legal word that
means to present your defence. When you are a believer and you are
presenting the gospel you are to always be ready to give an answer –1 Peter
3:15. There we have this same Greek word. It means to give a defence, make a
case, to give objective reasons for why you believe what you believe.
Acts 26:2 NASB
“In regard to all the things of which I am accused by the Jews, I consider
myself fortunate, King Agrippa, that I am about to make my defense
before you today;