I’m going to read another passage to you that it’s important to our study this morning, and that’s the one found in 1 Timothy, chapter 1, verses 12-16. Verse 12 of this passage is my favorite passage in all of the Bible, because, if you were here in the Bible class period [October 19, 2003, Bible Class, “When The Light Goes Out”], you know that as a boy, as a beginner with some of the circumstances around my early life, I would be the least expected one, probably, to be in the place where I am today. But our Lord has set my feet “in a large place,” as David said in the Psalms, and I hope that I have been somewhat faithful to Him. [Psalm 18:19: “Hebrought me forth also into a large place; He delivered me, because He delighted in me.” Psalm 118:5: “I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.”]

In this passage Paul said, “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, Who hath enabled me, for that He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; ¹³Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. ¹⁴And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. ¹⁶Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting,” [1 Timothy 1:12-16]. So, Paul, in many passages, in many references to his own life, speaks about the grace of God that was demonstrated in his life.

We’re first introduced to Paul by the name of “Saul” of Tarsus, and that in the last paragraph, the 58^th verse of the seventh chapter of the book of Acts [Acts 7:58: “And cast him (Stephen) out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.”]. Here, at the stoning of Stephen, he is found to be holding the garments of those who stoned Stephen. As they stoned him, and Saul held their garments, it is an indication that probably he did not cast a stone at all, but those who did the stoning recognized him as the leader of the group by laying their garments at his feet, or he kept their garments while they stoned Stephen. Ordinarily, the custom was that, the leader of the group would not cast a stone at all, and so maybe he had no part in that particular part of it in actually, literally casting a stone. But he was the leader of the group who stoned Stephen. We see that Stephen was the first martyr for the cause of Christ, and Saul was the leader in that stoning, in the martyrdom of this good man, of whom we first read about in the 6^th chapter of the book of Acts. Acts 8:1 says, “And Saul was consenting unto his death.”

And then, we note also that in the 8^th chapter of Acts, verse 1, there arose “a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad.” Then we get down a bit farther [verse 3], and the Scripture says, “As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison,” [KJV.] [NKJV: “As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.”] Saul was carrying on, and even intensifying, his persecution of the saints at Jerusalem. In Acts, the 9^th chapter, we have the same words, that he was still persecuting the saints of the Way, the people of the Way. [Acts 9:1-2: “And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, ²And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this Way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem,” KJV.]

He was on his way to Damascus to continue that persecution, as the saints were scattered from city to city, when he experienced something that was very rare and unusual. Yes, extremely rare—the only account of such an event that we have in the New Testament. Saul, “yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples,” with the letters of authority to go to Damascus and bind all that called upon the Name of Christ and bring them back to Jerusalem to be intensely persecuted, suddenly was stricken by the presence of a bright light. He says the brightness of that light exceeded that of the noonday sun. A voice spoke to him and said, '“Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” 'or “Why are you persecuting Me?” [Acts 9:4].

Saul had been a bitter persecutor of Christ by persecuting His disciples. He probably knew Jesus personally. Some of his biographers say that he knew Jesus personally and had conversations with Him, based on the frequency of their both being in the city of Jerusalem. Saul of Tarsus was a student in the school of Gamaliel there in Jerusalem [Acts 22:3: “I (Paul/Saul) am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city [Jerusalem]at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day'.” '] AND, he, being in Jerusalem, probably, at times, had seen Jesus. I don’t know that that’s necessary to the story of his conversion, but it would help us to understand why Saul might be opposed to Jesus. Saul had heard Jesus preach, yet, he did…not…believe…that which Jesus preached. Jesus preached that He was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. But, Saul did not believe that. He believed that to be heresy!

Saul knew that Jesus had been crucified on the cross, but he did not believe that He died for the sins of the world. The reason that I know that he knew about the crucifixion of Christ is, he said to Agrippa, “You knew about these things. They were not done in a corner. Everybody KNEW about it! And so, Agrippa, YOU must have known about it, also.” [Acts 26:26: “ For the king (Agrippa) knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely: for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner.”] So, Saul of Tarsus, studying at the school of Gamaliel there in Jerusalem, would have known about it, certainly. But he did not believe that Jesus died for the sins of the world.