Lads to Leaders

Shipwrecks, snake bites, and stonings.  Blinding lights, beatings, and betrayals.  Arrests, attacks, and afflictions. If I were to use these words to describe the events of someone’s life, you would likely feel several emotions. Your first emotion might be shock. This seems like someone who has experienced some pretty bad luck. Your second emotion might be pity. How could one person go through so much and endure?  And last, you might feel encouraged. Why would this type of life be encouraging? Let’s take the next few minutes and explore that thought.

You may have already discerned that the life that I am referring to belonged to the Apostle Paul. We first encounter Paul in Acts chapter 7. Verse 58 records that those who stoned Stephen laid their cloaks at the feet of the young man named Saul who would go on to see a radical transformation in his life to become the Apostle Paul. As Saul, the young man was full of zeal for God. So much so, that following the martyrdom of Stephen, he began to persecute the church. Scripture even describes his efforts as making havoc on the church as he entered houses and took men and women and committed them to prison in Acts chapter eight and verse 3. In chapter nine, we read how Saul wanted to continue his mission that he began in Jerusalem and go to the city of Damascus to continue to arrest those associated with The Way. On his way, he encountered a bright light shining from heaven and heard the voice of Jesus asking, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Paul responded by saying, “Who are you, Lord?” The answer he heard changed everything for this young man. The Lord said to him, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.” Jesus then instructs Saul to go into the city of Damascus where he will be made aware of what to do. Saul, who was blinded by the light, was led to the house of Judas on the street called straight in Damascus, where he spent the next three days where he neither ate nor drank. Saul was then visited by a man by the name of Ananias. Ananias was sent to restore Saul’s sight and to show him what he must suffer for the sake of the name of Jesus. Upon entering the house, Ananias laid hands  on Saul and said: “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately Saul’s sight was restored, and he rose and was baptized. Interestingly, when Paul later recounts the events of his conversion in Acts 22, he adds that Ananias in verse 16 says, “And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on His name.”

                This was the pivotal moment of Saul’s life. This is the moment where he goes from Saul to Paul. This is the moment where he went from lost to found. This is the moment where he went from death to life. This is the moment where God took his evil and made it for good.

So why would someone be encouraged by the life of the Apostle Paul? Because God took him through such incredible hardships and trials but never left him. He endured all types of earthly disaster, but God was faithful until the end. He took Paul’s focus of persecution and turned his focus into redemption. God used Paul for good to deliver the Gospel to the gentiles. God used Paul for good to write thirteen books of the New Testament. God used Paul for good as an example of how to follow Christ as he instructed in First Corinthians 11 and verse 1. May God use us in a similar manner, so that it may be said when our time here is over that our lives were used for good.