PAUL: APOSTLE OF JESUS CHRIST
1. It's hard to overestimate the importance of Paul to the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He wrote at least thirteen books of the NT. He was God's instrument, above all others, to take the gospel to the Gentile world. Once converted, he careered off across the world spreading the news of what God had done, was doing and would do in Jesus the Christ. His self-sacrifice and devotion, by God's grace, has inspired countless thousands down the years to heroic living. He wasn't Jesus the Lord, but he was a devoted servant and apostle of that blessed Lord. He wasn't always Christ's servant!
SAUL: PERSECUTOR OF JESUS CHRIST
2. When the kingdom divided back in the days of Rehoboam, only one tribe remained loyal to the royal tribe of Judah—Benjamin. Saul was a Benjamite. His religious upbringing was in the strict school of the Pharisees. He not only believed in all 39 OT books, he felt strictly bound, as Pharisees did, to the oral traditions handed down from Moses and charismatic rabbis. He paid tithes (taxes) as all other Jews did, but where others stopped, he went on to pay taxes on even the herbs he used as flavouring for his food (see Matthew 23:23). He and his kind prayed more than others. Did others fast? He fasted more! Did they study? He saturated himself with the Torah. Did they ceremoniously wash themselves? He washed more often! Did they feel passionately? He was driven! Were they consecrated people? He was possessed! While others made progress, he was a rising star. While many had capable teachers, he was a student of the famous Gamaliel. Were others talkers? He was an activist! They would kill heretics in the heat of the moment. He would plan his campaign of death and imprisonment against them. They would deal with the local heretics, he would pursue them to distant cities. All this and more we learn about Saul from the NT scriptures. In doing this to the followers of Christ, Saul was waging his personal war against the Lord of these people. (seeActs 26:9).
THE DAMASCUS ROAD EXPERIENCE
3. The story of what happened to Saul on the road to Damascus is told three times in the book of Acts! It is very important that you read all three recordings of that experience! See Acts 9,chapters 22, and 26.
4. Damascus is about 140 miles north (and east) of Jerusalem. The walk would take more a week. Saul's companions were police from the authorities and since Saul was a strict Pharisee, he would have little to do with them so he probably spent most of his time alone doing a lot of thinking. The trip would almost certainly take him through Galilee, where this Jesus spent so much of his life. In the city there were disciples of Jesus whom they claimed was the Christ. He would arrest them and bring them back to Jerusalem to stand trial. That's what he intended. He would enter the city like an avenging angel, breathing out threats and slaughter. That's not what happened because something almost incredible occurred as he got near to the ancient city.
5. Around noon (Acts 22:6) light blazed on him and his companions and they all fell to the ground (26:13). It was then he heard a voice speaking to him in the language of the Hebrews (probably in Aramaic, the usual in Palestine). "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goads." (26:14) I tend to think from this last phrase that Saul was wrestling within himself about the truth of the Christian faith even though he persecuted them so fiercely. (Maybe part of the reason he was so fierce was because of the inner struggle!) An ox, unused to the yoke, would kick back at the driver. The poorer farmers would have a sharp stick with which to jab the hind legs of the ox though some of the carts would be fitted with sharp points. The sooner the ox settled under the yoke, the sooner the pain of the goads would only be a memory. Stephen's arguments, the apostolic use of Scripture and the miracles wrought, the willingness to die rather than recant—all this and more may well have been gnawing at the mind of this "defender of the faith". But he needed more, and more is what he got. Now he is face to face with the very Lord himself!