Acts 8 "Biblical 180"

Acts 8 – Brandon Hatmaker “Biblical 180”
Tuesday, April 22, 2008

“And Saul was there, giving approval to his death. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.” – Acts 8:1-3

Talk about your 180 degree “u-turn” of Biblical proportions. It’s absolutely amazing to see Saul (Paul) prior to his conversion. I don’t know if there is any way we can truly grasp how significant his transformation was. There are a couple of additional scriptures that Paul wrote later that are profound to me in reading Acts 8 this morning:

“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.” – 1 Timothy 1:15-16

“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.” – 1 Corinthians 1:27-29

God chooses to use us for His Glory. So many times I sit back and say, “God, are you sure you want to use me?” Most of us can relate. It’s hard to believe. But He does. Let there be no doubt, there is nothing we can do of our own efforts that will be considered good fruit. Jesus said that apart from Him, we can do nothing. It’s amazing what can be done through us when we remain “in” him.

Keeping it simple today, here are some good additional thoughts I read recently on Saul’s conversion that I thought captures well what was happening:

“The scripture says that Saul, a young man, was present and that he ‘was consenting unto [Stephen's] death’ (Acts 8:1)…As we all know, Saul was subsequently converted while on the road to Damascus and in a few years became the great ‘apostle of the Gentiles’ (Rom. 11:13). It is probable that Stephen's gracious manner had almost as much effect upon Paul as did his stirring words…Paul was no doubt present at Stephen's defense in the council and had seen his angelic face on that occasion. He would have observed the kneeling Stephen plead with the Lord for the forgiveness of his persecutors. All of this must have made an impression in Paul's memory because sometime later during a vision, Paul said to the Lord Jesus, ‘When the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him’ (Acts 22:20).