Conversion of Saint Paul

Acts 9:1-22| Pastor James Preus| Trinity Lutheran Church| January 26, 2025

Last Monday, much of our nation was captivated by the inauguration of President Donald Trump. This historical event easily overshadowed other news stories that day, including the death of former Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards from brain cancer. Richards famously oversaw Planned Parenthood as it murdered over 3.8 million unborn babies in the womb and provided cross-sex drugs for people to attempt to transition from the sex God made them. Her life’s work was an affront to God’s Holy Law, and Christians everywhere prayed for the end of the evil she did. Yet, curiously, when Richards was diagnosed with glioblastoma a few months ago, the reaction of Christians and pro-life advocates was not glee at her demise, but rather a call for prayers for her health and soul. And even when she did die on Monday, most Christians who commented on it expressed a desire that she had repented and is not now facing the judgment she deserves.

Now this is odd behavior to the world, which is why most unbelievers doubt the sincerity of such prayers. Why would Christians pray for someone who clearly showed herself to be an enemy of God by her work? Christians pray for such people, because our Lord Jesus Christ commands us, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:44-45) This is why Christians pray for their enemies, for enemies of Jesus, and for enemies of His Church. This is why the saints of the infant Christian Church no doubt prayed for Saul of Tarsus, whom we know better as St. Paul, as he ravaged the Church with threats and murder seeking to destroy it. Yet, why does Jesus command you to pray for such enemies?

First, because you yourself were once such an enemy of God. This same St. Paul writes in Ephesians 2 that you “were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” The only reason you are not an enemy of God, is because of God’s grace. By grace He rescued you from being His enemy to being His friend. All Christians are former enemies of God. And so, we will continue to pray for current enemies of God, that they too might be rescued from damnation and become our friends in Christ.

Second, we pray for enemies of Christ’s Church, because it glorifies God when His enemies confess Christ. St. Paul confesses in Galatians one that the Church glorified God because of his conversion. And so, this also teaches us what we should pray for when we pray for our enemies and pray for the enemies of Christ and His Church. We should pray that they repent and find grace from God through faith in Christ Jesus.

Many misinterpret Jesus’ command to love your enemies and to pray for those who persecute you to mean that we should deny that they are our enemies and to ignore the fact that they persecute us and others. But this is not what Jesus says. This is misplaced compassion, which ends up hurting the vulnerable, dishonoring God, and does not show love toward the evil people persecuting the Church. The Church did not deny that Saul was a persecutor of Christians. They spread the news, so that every Christian had heard of Saul and the evil he was doing. And so, we should do the same today. When wicked governments and other powerful people persecute Christians and do other evils like killing defenseless babies, the church should loudly proclaim this injustice and pray for the victims and for the persecutors. So, when Christians pray for the enemies of the Church, they are not simply praying for their good health and happiness, but that they would be brought to repentance, that is, that they would stop doing the evil they are doing, that their souls would be saved, and that they would glorify God with their works. We are praying that our enemies would be our brothers and sisters in Christ.

This is the prayer that was answered concerning Saul. He was brought to repentance. Christ Himself confronted him with the fact that he was persecuting Him by persecuting His Christians. Saul was particularly evil. The chief priest didn’t approach him, rather he went to the chief priest to ask for papers to arrest Christian men and women in Damascus, so hot was his murderous anger toward them. And Saul didn’t do this in secret. Everyone had heard of Saul’s evil plan, so that his fame spread among Christians and non-Christians. Yet, He who set Saul apart from before he was born and called him by grace was pleased to reveal His Son, Jesus Christ, to Saul. And why did God do this for this enemy of His Son and His Church? In order for Saul to preach among the Gentiles the glorious Gospel of Christ Jesus.

St. Paul’s ministry focused primarily on the Gentiles, that is, non-Jews, while St. Peter’s ministry focused primarily on the Jewish Christians. Of course, they both preached to both groups. However, because of this focus, Paul became a much more prolific Apostle than Peter! There are many more Gentiles than Jews, after all. And because Gentiles were alienated from God and from His people for so long, Paul needed to write much more to bring them fully into the people of God. And so, Jesus’ words from Matthew 19 were fulfilled. Jesus told His twelve disciples that they would sit on twelve thrones judging Israel. Of course, one of Jesus’ twelve disciples, Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him, fell away. So, there remained a vacant throne. Jesus also told His disciples, “Many who are first will be last, and the last first.” And so, Paul, who was the last of the Apostles, not only because He was called last, but because he had persecuted the Church of Christ, became the greatest Apostle!

St. Paul wrote 13 of the 27 books of the Old Testament. More than that, he most clearly articulated the Gospel that a sinner is justified, that is, saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone apart from his works (Romans 3:23-25; Ephesians 2:8-9). The least of the Apostles became the greatest of the Apostles in the heart of the Christian Church, because he so clearly taught us the sweet Gospel, that we are saved from our sins, not by our works, but as a free gift for Christ’s sake, who made satisfaction for our sins through His perfect obedience and atoning death on the cross. Through his life and ministry, Paul shows that even the chief of sinners has a Savior in Christ Jesus. And for that reason, the Church not only prayed for, but forever gives thanks for this former persecutor of Christ.

Ananias was understandably surprised when Jesus appeared to him in a dream and commanded him to go and heal this infamous persecutor of the Church. Yet, Jesus persuaded Ananias by stating that Saul was His chosen instrument to carry His name to the Gentiles. Jesus concluded His speech to Ananias, “For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of My name.” Now this almost sounds vindictive or that Christ wants Saul to make up for what he has done against His Church. But that is not at all what Jesus is saying. Rather, Jesus is making clear to Ananias that Saul will be truly blessed.

But how can this be? How can Saul be blessed by suffering? Well, in fact all Christians are blessed by suffering. Jesus tells us in His Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account, Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:10-12) So, Jesus says that we join good company when we suffer for His name’s sake. Yet, we join even better company than the prophets and apostles, for we join Christ Himself! Jesus says, “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.” (Matthew 10:24-26) And so, Paul found comfort in his suffering, because it was a sign that he was joined to Christ, his Master.

We are not saved by our suffering, that is, our suffering does not earn our salvation. We are saved by the suffering of Christ. Christ’s suffering is what has earned our salvation. Yet, God does use our suffering to save us. Paul was intently aware of this. He wrote in Romans 5, “More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (vss. 3-5) So, God uses our suffering to draw us closer to Him. Suffering is simply our false gods and idols being torn away from our flesh, yes, even our sinful flesh being cut off from our new self. It does not feel good in the moment, yet Paul teaches us about suffering, “All things work out together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28) So, God uses our suffering to conform us to the image of His Son, so that we might be the firstborn of many brothers (Romans 8:29).

This is why St. Paul writes that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory to be revealed to us (Romans 8:18). Our sufferings are not paying for the glories that will be revealed to us in heaven, otherwise they would be comparable. But they are not worth comparing, because they are not payment for our sins, but God in His infinite wisdom rescues us from the vanity of this world, so that we may rejoice in splendor with Him forever.

So, on this observance of St. Paul’s Conversion, we learn why we Christians do strange things. We rejoice when we suffer and we pray for those who persecute us! But this all makes sense when you know Christ Jesus, who suffered persecution and died for our sins, so that we might be righteous before God. It was Christ Jesus who has been praying for us from before the foundation of the world, even though we were by nature His enemies, sold under sin. And it is Christ, who rejoiced that He might suffer for our sake to rescue us from sin and hell. So, we continue to pray for those who hate us and hate Christ and His Church, with hopes that we will be able to call them our brothers and sisters in Christ. And we continue to rejoice in suffering, knowing that our suffering is Christ’s suffering, and that He uses this suffering to draw us closer to Him and away from this dying world. Amen.