Tag Archives: saul of tarsus

Alistair Begg

Alistair Begg – Lessons from Leprosy

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Alistair Begg

And if the leprous disease has covered all his body, he shall pronounce him clean of the disease.

Leviticus 13:13

This regulation appears to be very strange, but there was wisdom in it, for the throwing out of the disease proved that the constitution was sound. This morning it may be well for us to see the typical teaching of this singular principle. We, too, are lepers and may read the law of the leper as applicable to ourselves. When a man sees himself to be completely lost and ruined, covered all over with the defilement of sin, and with no part free from pollution, when he disclaims all righteousness of his own and pleads guilty before the Lord, then is he clean through the blood of Jesus and the grace of God.

Hidden, unfelt, unconfessed iniquity is the true leprosy, but when sin is seen and felt it has received its death blow, and the Lord looks with eyes of mercy upon the soul afflicted with it. Nothing is more deadly than self-righteousness or more hopeful than contrition. We must confess that we are nothing else but sin, for no confession short of this will be the whole truth. And if the Holy Spirit is at work within us, convincing us of sin, there will be no difficulty in making such an acknowledgment-it will spring spontaneously from our lips.

What comfort this text provides to those under a deep sense of sin! Sin mourned and confessed, however deep and foul, will never shut a man out from the Lord Jesus. “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”1 Though dishonest as the thief, though immoral as the woman who was a sinner, though fierce as Saul of Tarsus, though cruel as Manasseh, though rebellious as the prodigal, the great heart of love will look upon the man who feels himself to have no health in him and will pronounce him clean when he trusts in Jesus crucified. Come to Him, then, poor heavy-laden sinner.

Come needy, come guilty, come loathsome and bare;

You can’t come too filthy-come just as you are.

1John 6:37

 

 

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – What Do You Live For?

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I saw an advertisement in a computer magazine with a photo of a guy shaving. It asked the question “Is it an alarm or a calling that gets you out of bed in the morning?” That is a very good question. What do you live for? What makes you tick? What do you get up for in the morning?

All of us have something or someone we live for. Some passion, ideal, that drives us on, giving our lives purpose, some sense of meaning, raising it above the level of mere existence. We don’t want our lives on this earth to be some temporary “blip on the screen.”

Paul’s passion was Jesus. The apostle wrote, in Philippians 1:21, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Paul of course used to be known as the notorious Christian killer, Saul of Tarsus. But Saul met the risen Lord on the Damascus road and had his life forever changed. Now he would serve Jesus with as much passion as he once served Satan. Can you imagine what a different world we’d live in if more Christians served the Lord with the same level of commitment that they used to serve the devil with?

There are two questions every believer should ask. Saul asked two questions on the day of his conversion. “Who are you, Lord?” and “What will you have me to do?” Those would be great questions for you to personally ask Jesus today. Let that calling to serve Him get you up in the morning instead of an alarm clock. He has a plan and purpose for you today!

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – A Badge of Honor

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Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. —Matthew 5:10

God takes it personally when His people come under attack, just as you would take it personally if someone were to attack your child or your grandchild.

When Saul of Tarsus, the notorious Christian killer, met Jesus on the Damascus Road, he had just presided over the death of Stephen, the first martyr of the church. Not only that, he was on his way to kill more Christians. So what did Jesus say to Saul? “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4).

Notice that He did not say, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting My people?” For Jesus, it was personal. In the same way, when God’s people come under persecution, it is personal to Him. So if you are going through some kind of hardship, if you are being harassed, criticized, or persecuted for your faith in Jesus, be encouraged by that.

At the end of the Beatitudes, Jesus said,

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:10–12)

Jesus used the word “blessed” twice as He spoke about persecution for His sake to emphasize the generous blessing given by God to the persecuted. Jesus was effectively saying, “Double blessed are the persecuted.” The word “blessed” also could be translated “happy.” It’s as though Jesus were saying, “Happy, happy are the persecuted.”

It isn’t so happy when the persecution is taking place. But you can wear it as a badge of honor that someone would attack you because you so faithfully represent Jesus Christ.

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A Choice in the Matter – Greg Laurie

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And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”—Acts 9:17

After hearing the voice of Jesus on the road to Damascus, Saul (later to become Paul) was left blind. He was led to the home of a man named Judas in Damascus, and he had no idea what would happen next.

Enter an unsung hero named Ananias. God appeared to him in a vision and said, “Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying. And in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he might receive his sight” (Acts 9:11–12).

But Ananias said, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem . . .” (verse 13).

I can understand the reticence on Ananias’ part. The idea of Saul’s becoming a Christian would not even be believable or plausible.

Yet God was unmoved by Ananias’ protest. He said, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel” (verse 15).

So Ananias obeyed, and Saul received his sight. Everything happened just as God said it would.

Sometimes God will ask us to do something we may be reluctant to do. But we have a choice in the matter. We don’t have to obey God. When God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach to them, he went—in the opposite direction. And eventually Jonah ended up doing what God wanted him to do.

So you can be a Jonah, or you can be an Ananias. You can say yes, or you can say no.

Man has his will, but God will always have His way.

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Not Over Yet – Greg Laurie

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Plant your seed in the morning and keep busy all afternoon, for you don’t know if profit will come from one activity or another—or maybe both — Ecclesiastes 11:6

Saul, later to become the apostle Paul, was doing the work of the kingdom before he was even in it. Had he not persecuted the church, I think the first-century Christians probably would have been content to stay in their little holy huddle in Jerusalem and never leave town. It was great, God had blessed, and there were believers all around. So who wanted to leave Jerusalem? But with Saul’s persecution, the Christians were forced to spread out, and in the process, they took the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world.

I think the person who probably had the greatest influence in bringing about the conversion of Saul was Stephen, the church’s first martyr. I believe it was Stephen’s bold testimony that actually threw fuel on Saul’s fire, because Saul was under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Stephen didn’t have a long ministry. He never wrote a book of the New Testament. But if his only convert was Saul of Tarsus, then he was one whopper of a convert.

You may not reach millions. You may not reach thousands. You may not reach hundreds. But you may be the person whom God uses to reach someone who will, in turn, change the world. Or, it may be a child whom you raised in the way of the Lord who reaches someone else who talks to someone else and eventually shares the gospel with someone like Saul. So here is what you need to realize: It’s not over till it’s over.

We need to be faithful in sowing the seed of the Word of God, because we don’t know where that seed will go . . . in this life . . . or in the next generation . . . or in the next one.

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Closer Than You Think – Greg Laurie

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“I used to believe that I ought to do everything I could to oppose the very name of Jesus the Nazarene.”

— Acts 26:9

Does it ever seem impossible to you that God could save certain people? Is there someone you know right now who is not a believer and, in fact, seems far from becoming one? Maybe it is almost laughable to envision this person carrying a Bible around and saying something like, “Praise the Lord!”

In the book of Acts we find the story of one of the most amazing conversions of all time—a conversion so unexpected that even the Christians at the time didn’t think it was possible. I am speaking of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, later to become the great apostle Paul. The interesting thing about Saul’s conversion is that he was one of the most radical antagonists of the early church. It was Saul who presided over the death of Stephen, the first martyr of the church who courageously stood up for his faith.

It was Saul who went out of his way to literally hunt down Christians, imprison them, and even destroy them. This man was bent on the eradication of the Christian faith.

If you know an antagonistic person, someone who seems to go out of his or her way to make your life miserable, someone who is always trying to stump you with a hard question, it just may be they are closer to the kingdom of God than you realize.

Sometimes the people who attack the most, the people who are the greatest mockers and antagonists, are those who are actually under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. And that is why they do what they do. The person who is the most opposed to the things of God may be actually closer than you think.

Remember, no one is beyond the reach of God—no one. So start praying for them by name.