Lessons from Paul
Tom Shrader examines the conversion of Saul of Tarsus from Acts 6-9, showing how Paul went from being a zealous religious persecutor to becoming Christianity's greatest evangelist. He emphasizes that religious activity without conversion is worthless, and that salvation comes through grace alone, not human effort. The teaching warns against the natural tendency to approach God through religious performance rather than faith.
“You can be very religious and still not be, in our context, saved.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Lessons from the Legends
Recorded: September 25, 2014
Duration: 37 min
Themes: conversion, grace, salvation, faith, persecution, transformation, evangelism, performance, struggling with legalism, new believer, former religious background, questioning salvation, pastor, spiritual seeker, young adult, feeling condemned
Scripture: Acts 6:8-15, Acts 7:51-60, Acts 8:1-3, Acts 9:1-19, Philippians 3:4-8, Philippians 1:6, Matthew 6:2-16, Romans 1:16, 1 Corinthians 15, Ephesians 2:1-10, Titus 3:3-6
Theological Themes: soteriology, grace alone, religious legalism, conversion experience, sanctification, spiritual transformation, justification by faith, works righteousness
Full Transcript
If you have Bibles, open them to the book of Acts, the sixth chapter and the eighth verse. We're doing a series titled Lessons from the Legends. In session one, we looked at the life of Joseph and learned from him forgiveness and steadfastness. Last week we looked at Daniel and learned how to thrive in a hostile world. Both of these should be pretty practical and helpful.
Today, the focus of our lesson is on Paul and the title is God Hates Religion. I remember the first time I heard that coming from my background. That jarred my preserves because I thought, wow, I was all about religion. So we're going to unpack that today.
Our Foundation of Hope
Here's the sentence that's become really a mantra for life, but for this series. Our hope is rooted in the character of God, the promises of God, the sovereignty of God, and the faithfulness of God. I can't stand when somebody says you should or you need to. Having said that, you should and need to get that sentence down. It becomes a basic cornerstone foundation for your approach to life.
Our hope is rooted in four things: character, promises, sovereignty, and faithfulness of God. Our hope is not rooted in Fred Duval or Doug Ducey, though I think it matters and all that kind of stuff. Our ultimate hope and certainty is found in God. Who He is, what He said, His promises, His sovereignty which means His authority, and His faithfulness.
So He, Philippians 1:6, He who began a good work in you will continue it until the day of Christ Jesus. Now that's either kind of a comforting slogan that we throw at you like some sort of painkiller, or it's true. It's true because it's based on the character of God, the promises of God, the sovereignty of God, and the faithfulness of God. Those have to come together.
Stephen: Full of Grace and Power
We pick up in Acts chapter 6, and if you don't have a Bible but you've got your phone, I've got no problem with you on a phone or an iPad using a Bible app. I got whatever it is you need, but we're doing narratives. I want you to just kind of follow along the best you can.
In Acts chapter 6 verse 8, we meet a guy by the name of Stephen, and we're told in verse 8, he's full of grace and power and performing great wonders and signs among the people. Those in the synagogue, those religious of the day, rose up in verse 9 and argued with Stephen, but they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking.
So much for civility. They couldn't argue with him. They're overwhelmed by his argument. It's filled with wisdom and capital S spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit.
False Accusations and Heavenly Vision
So in verse 13, they bring forth false witness against him, and they make the accusation that he's a man who is teaching about Jesus. In verse 15, they fixed their gaze on him, and all who were sitting in the council saw his face, Stephen's face, like the face of an angel.
Chapter 7 verse 51. We talk in here a lot about books. A few years ago, Mr. Wheeler and I were doing book chats on a night. We'd take a book, get a couple hundred people, read the book, and talk about it. We're always searching for the right book in that case.
A title surfaced, and I said, Steve, I don't want to read this. This is goofy. Of course, he's very persuasive and persistent, and he said, no, I've read it, let's do it. The book was How to Win Friends and Influence People. I had, like so many other things, never read the book. I just knew I didn't like it. I wasn't into winning friends, and I did want to influence people, but I didn't think I needed the book.
We read the book, discussed the book, and I'm telling you, it should be, especially in the generation we live in, it should be must-reading. If you've got kids, college kids just out. If you've got a high school student, and you're always trying to figure out, I want to have that one-on-one with them, and I want to get together with them and do a study. Let me tell you, that book is a great book.
It's got things in it like this. When you meet somebody, shake their hand, and look them in the eye. I spent a lot of time at our different campuses with a lot of younger people, and we were in a lot of churches this summer other than our churches. Every Sunday, it would go like this. I go, hi, I'm Tom. And they go, I'm Chase. Well, first of all, they should have never named you a verb. If you've got somebody named Chase, I didn't mean to insult you, but look at me. I'm telling you, these kids, all I hear are these kids whining, there's no jobs, there's no anything. If you can give correct change and show up on time, you're in the top ten percent.
Stephen's Bold Confrontation
How to win friends and influence people. My point is this, Stephen never got the book. Verse 51 of chapter 7, here's what he leads with as he speaks to these Jews. You are a stiff neck and uncircumcised in the heart. You don't even want to open with that. That was not part of how to win friends. You stiff neck, you uncircumcised.
He comes back and he said, you're like all your forefathers. Every prophet that came along, you persecuted them. And now, it's here.
Chapter 7, verse 54, when they heard this, they were cut to the quick. They began gnashing their teeth by being filled with the Holy Spirit. He gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, behold, I see the heavens open up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.
The Stoning of Stephen
But they cried out with a loud voice and covered their ears. I can't hear you. I can't hear you. They drove him out of town and they began stoning him. The witnesses laid aside their robe at a feet of a young man named Saul.
That's our character study. They went on stoning Stephen and he called out to the Lord, Lord Jesus receive my spirit.
falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord do not hold this sin against them." Having said this, he fell asleep. He died.
So they would stone them in different ways. It wasn't just sitting back from 50 feet and launching these rocks. Oftentimes, and we get a sense this was the setting, there'd be maybe a ledge three, four, five feet above the victim. They would take the rocks—and not just little pebbles but bigger rocks—and they would plummet the victim with this. You need to be freed up for that. So they took off their cloak, this becomes important now, and they want him to be watched. So they laid him at the feet of Saul. It's the man we know of Saul of Tarsus.
Saul's Campaign of Persecution
We're going to pick up his story now in chapter 8 verse 1 and verse 3. Saul's in hearty agreement with putting Stephen to death. "And on that day, a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem. And they were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria except for the Apostles." Verse 3: "Paul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, dragging off men and women, and he put them in prison."
The word that's translated "ravaging" in secular Greek literature was used to describe a wild animal tearing apart its prey. He's going from house to house and he's an equal opportunity persecutor. It's men and women and he's dragging them off.
Now we fast-forward to chapter 9: "Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked for a letter from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so if that he found any belonging to the way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem." Saul feels that he's done a wonderful job in wiping out or at least putting a huge dent in the Christian population in Jerusalem. He wants to go now to Damascus, and he wants to go there and do the same thing there. This guy is a zealot for what he believes. He believes he's God's guy fighting against what he considers to be contrary to the things of God.
The Road to Damascus
And he has this experience. Verse 3: he's traveling. "It happened as he approached Damascus. Suddenly, a light from heaven flashed around him and he fell to the ground. He heard a voice saying, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?' And he said, 'who are you, Lord?' And he said, 'I am Jesus who you're persecuting, but get up and enter the city and it will be told to you what to do.' And Saul got up from the ground and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing, they led him by hand into the city. He was there three days without sight, did not eat or drink."
Verse 10: "There was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision, 'Ananias,' he said, 'here I am.' And the Lord said to him, 'get up and go to the street called Straight and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. He's seen a vision of a man named Ananias. Come in. Lay hands on him so he may regain his sight.'"
Ananias's Hesitation
Verse 13: there's some great humor here to me. Ananias says, "Lord, I've heard from many about this man how much harm he did to Your saints at Jerusalem. He has the authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name here." In other words, let me just put this in language you can get, Ananias is saying to the Lord, are You sure You've got the right guy? Because we've heard a lot about him.
Now, let's hit the pause button and apply it to your life. Because you've got people in your life. I can think of one guy in particular. Here you go. How about this? I can think of myself. I had asked some guys if I could go to a Bible study they were going to, and it was in the course of that Bible study that God saved me through the ministry of Larry Wright. I went back to these guys afterwards because they had never invited me. I said, why did you never invite me to this study? Here was their answer: it never occurred to us that God would save a guy like you. That's this Ananias thing.
You've got people in your life that you might hear, like the old Chuck Colson story. Here's Colson, one of Nixon's toughest guys. So now, he moves in and you begin to hear Colson's a Christian, and you go, I'm going to have to watch this play out for a while. That's what Ananias is going, are you sure? And he might even go, God, I'm not questioning You. I just haven't been hearing as well lately. Did I get the right name?
Verse 13: Ananias says, "I've heard about Him." Verse 15: "The Lord said, 'Go, He is a chosen instrument of Mine to bear My name before the Gentiles and the kings and the Son of Israel, for I will show Him how much He must suffer for My sake.'" Verse 17-19: Ananias departs and he comes to Saul and he tells him, hear indeed how God is going to use you. Immediately as he does this, the scales fall from his eyes and he regains his sight. The last part of verse 19: "For several days he was with the disciples who were at Damascus."
The Meaning of Damascus Conversion
That's Paul's conversion story. That's become synonymous with anything radical. This is not a political statement. I want to use the illustration here, so take the politics out of it. But there was a headline, now it's Drudge, so Drudge has a perspective. But there was a Drudge headline on Monday or Tuesday: "Obama has Damascus conversion on ISIS." Now I don't want to talk about ISIS. I don't want to talk about the politics. I want to say, when Drudge is trying to think of how can I say there was a reversal in his mind of view, the most radical thing he can say is Damascus conversion. See that?
The Essential Point
For the next 24 minutes, I'm just going to grind home this one point. And I want you to get this. I'll use big language if it'll stop you and force you to think. Unless you've had a conversion identical to Saul's, you haven't been converted at all. Now obviously, circumstantially it's going to be different. But substantially it has to be the same. There's a reversal.
of how I see not just the world, but how I see God and how I see myself. Paul writes about that reversal. If you'll turn over to the book of Philippians, Philippians 3, verse 4, Paul is writing autobiographically. What he's doing here is contrasting religion and faith in Christ.
Here's what he's saying in verse 4: "Although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more." He's going to say, you want to talk about religion? Let me give you my pedigree.
"I was circumcised on the eighth day." Now, he's not claiming anything that he did there. He's saying, you want to talk about a godly family? He didn't on the eighth day wake up and say, "Mom, it's our big day." Mom grabbed him. He's circumcised on the eighth day. "Of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. As to the law, a Pharisee. As to zeal, a persecutor of the church."
He's saying, I didn't just say I was a Jew. You want to talk about zeal? I lived it. We just looked at it. I'm there when the first martyr is killed. I'm there to wipe out the church of Jerusalem. I'm on the way to Damascus. I'm not just playing at this thing. I am all of those things. "But as to righteousness that's found in the law, blameless." I'm following everything religious.
Paul's Religious Resume in Modern Terms
Let's put it in our language. He would say, you want to talk about church? I'm in there all the time. I don't just go. I'm at the door passing out bulletins. I'm teaching Sunday school. Sandy's teaching. She said, "Do you want to help me on Sunday?" I said, "I think the best help I could do would be to go home and watch the Red Zone," because I'm not going in with the second graders. That's just not my gift. I can't even handle their parents barely. I really don't need this.
You're teaching the second graders. You're giving—not just chump change. You're writing big checks. You're having this quiet time. You're here on a Thursday morning. You're reading your Bible. You're in BSF. That's the equivalent of what Paul's saying.
Paul's saying, I did all that stuff. But according to the King James, he said, "I count them but dung, as compared to the surpassing knowledge of knowing Jesus Christ, my Lord." Here's what he's saying: you can be very religious and still not be, in our context, saved. Delivered.
The Pastor Who Was Converted Under His Own Teaching
My favorite, Spurgeon. I love Spurgeon. Love to read him. Love to read about him. He went as a young man, as a pastor—I can't remember, that first church at 16, maybe? Comes into London and starts to preach and sets the town on fire. Literally thousands are coming to hear him speak every week. He's maligned by the religious people of the day because he uses humor—they feel too much humor—and smokes cigars, which he promised to stop if it became excess. They said, "What's excess?" He said, "Two at a time."
He's preaching one day, Spurgeon, and he tells a story of a pastor on the other side of town. This is so good. Who was converted under his own teaching. The story goes that the pastor was preaching the gospel one day, and all of a sudden, one of the people there stood up and said, "I believe our pastor's been saved." Another one stood up and said, "This is what we've been praying for."
Religion Without Salvation
Here's what I want you to see. You can have a music stand on a Thursday morning. You can be doing all these things. That's all religion. That doesn't mean or equate to salvation. Churches are filled with pastors who aren't Christians. Sunday school classes are filled with guys that aren't Christians.
Here you go. You want to hide from God? Here's where you can really hide from Him. Go to the choir. God's not looking there. There's all sorts of people all over that aren't believers, but engage in religious activity. That's why we're not really good judges of "Is he a Christian? Is he not?" It takes a conversation, and it's not your position to judge anyway.
Our whole intention here is not so you start to run through the people in your life that may not be Christians. Our intention is that you hold this up as a mirror and look at yourself.
Jesus Warns Against Religious Performance
In Matthew chapter 6, verses 2, 15, and 16, Jesus says, "When you pray, when you give, when you fast, don't do it like the Pharisees." He said, here's this group of religious people, and they're giving, and they're fasting, and they're doing all the things that you'd want them to do. You need to do it too, but don't do it like they do. He didn't mean the mechanics of it. He meant the heart condition.
You want to talk religion? Paul says, "I'll tell you what, I can give you my resume." If you're new to this, this is big stuff. If it isn't big stuff to you anymore, and you're so familiar with it, something's wrong with you. Somehow you need to be born again again—and by that I mean of mind, of excitement.
The Adoption Video That Shows God's Heart
I don't ever post on Facebook, but I'm a Facebook voyeur. I love to look and see what's happening. There was a story last night on a girl that has been a foster—I would say she's a teen—and she's a foster kid. Her foster parents are getting ready to tell her they're going to adopt her. Have any of you seen that video by any chance?
They're sitting, and the dad's saying, "Really, it's been great having you, and you know, and all this, and you're in, and you know, we love you." The girl's thinking, you know, they're being nice, six-month review. "We've fallen so in love with you that we want to adopt you and make you part of our family forever." She just begins to weep, and I began to choke up.
Now think about this. The Creator God of the universe took you as a rebellious sinful
helpless enemy of His, and said to you, "I'm going to adopt you perfectly, knowing everything there is now." Because even in that adoption as a kid, they kind of say you're into our family, but we don't know exactly what the future holds, but we're going to hang in there. God's saying to you, "I know what the future holds. I know who you are. You can't fool me. I got it, and I'm going to adopt you perfectly, and I accept you the way you are." You know, can't leave you there.
That's what you've been adopted into. When Paul says whatever this religion was, that's done. Those things are lost compared to the sake of knowing Christ Jesus. Verse 8, the value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, of coming to know Him, and to know His power.
The Gospel: Power for Salvation
Look at Romans 1:16. Paul says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes." He says, "I'm not ashamed." The opposite of that is, "I'm proud." Proud of what? The gospel.
What's the gospel? Well, it's 1 Corinthians 15, that Christ died for our sin. That Christ died for our sin is not radical, new, stop the presses stuff. Wikipedia says Jesus died. But what the Bible tells us is why He died. He died for our sin.
That was this moment. It's beyond, I think, full comprehension. But it doesn't mean we don't strive to comprehend it. It is that in that moment of time, Christ paid the price, the guilt, the sacrifice that was due for our sin. He died, and He rose again.
We sang Sunday, I was teaching, and I think because I was teaching, they threw old songs in, I don't know, but "Because He Lives, I Can Face Tomorrow." Well, that's what happened on that Easter. It's not just that the tomb was empty. We talk a bunch about an empty tomb, but an empty tomb doesn't prove a risen Christ. An empty tomb just says the tomb's empty. But now we see the risen Christ. The Apostles, and Peter, and 500, and Paul.
Paul's Transformation: Same Personality, Different Jersey
This Saul of Tarsus becomes Paul the Apostle. Arguably, one of the most influential people in the history of mankind. Paul, and what I love about Paul, and I think we can learn so much from it, is that when God saves you, He doesn't necessarily change your personality. You just change jerseys.
Here was Paul, and he's this zealot. He is determined to wipe out the faith, and God saves him. And now he becomes the number one spokesman for the faith.
Dead in Sin, Alive in Christ
So let me tie it together, turn to the book of Ephesians, and that'll be the last turn for the day, then I'll give you four points that we can take out of here. When we talk about the gospel, Paul's writing to the church at Ephesus in Ephesians chapter 2, and in your Bible, because I want you guys to write and take notes and mark these things up, in your Bible or in your notes, make a cross-reference to Titus chapter 3, verses 3 through 6. It's a passage we rarely go to, but maybe because we rarely go to, though it says essentially the same thing here, it's a fresh look.
So take a look at that. Here's what Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1: "You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of the world, according to the prince of power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedient. Among them, we too all formerly lived in the lusts of the flesh, including the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath."
So here's what Paul says about everyone who comes into this world. We all were children of disobedience, by nature children of wrath, and consequently dead that separated from God.
Sandy and I were home last night, and we were just having a bowl of soup, and she was going to head out to teach her Bible study, and she said, "I couldn't hear it," she said, "I hear little voices," and then about 10 seconds later, there was this not very strong knock. So over we go, and there's Lucy and Harmony at the door with their mom. Lucy came busting in, and she said, "Can I use your potty?" I said, "Well, you got any money?" She didn't know what to say to that, and she said, "No, I have to go to the bathroom." So into the bathroom she goes, Harmony's in, she's looking for Minnie Mouse, stuff's flying all over, they're talking, they're laughing. If it wasn't your house, you'd say it's as cute as can be, and I'm reminded, though I got it pretty well squared away, they're children of disobedience and wrath. If they were strong enough, they'd take everything they wanted and just rip it right out of your fingers and tell you to pack fudge on the way. That's who we are coming into this world.
But God: Rich in Mercy
Look at the language, chapter 2 verse 1, "you were that." Verse 4, "But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you've been saved."
This is an amazing thing. This isn't about religion, it's not about what you did. Look down, you're in Ephesians 2, look down to verse 8, "For by grace you've been saved through faith, that not of yourself, it's a gift of God, not as a result of works so no one could boast."
Now that word saved means delivered or rescued. Saved from what? Saved from sin and the consequence of sin. So the problem with the world is me, and you, and us. We come into the world sinners, separated from God, and we intuitively want to make that right, but we can't. God moves, and He does it in a way that is counterintuitive. I'm saved or delivered based on grace through faith, not as a result of anything that I would do. Everything I would do is religion.
Grace: Christianity's Unique Gift
Christianity has this word that's unique to it. No other faith has it. It's called grace. Max Lucado writes this: "Please note, salvation is God-given, God-driven, God-empowered, God-originated. The gift is not from man to God, but from God to man. Grace is created by God and given to man. On the basis of this point alone, Christianity is set apart from any other religion in the world. Every other
The approach to God through religion is a bartering system. If I do this, God will do that. I'm saved by my works, what I do, my emotions, what I experience, or my knowledge, what I know. But Christianity has no whiff of negotiation at all. Man is not the negotiator. Indeed, man has no grounds from which to negotiate.
Some of you are even here today, and I don't know this for sure, but it's speculation based on 25 years of doing this. Some of you are here today under the illusion that your presence is going to satisfy God. I'm not doing so well. We see a lot of this around Christmas, Easter, New Year. Life's screwed up. Got to get my act together. I'm going to clean my act up. And so this is part of it. And it's going to last about as long as your commitment to the gym.
You're going to do that for a while. And then, it's like me and my diet, or me and my medicine. The minute I start to feel better, I quit taking it. So, I got rid of it. I cleaned my diet all up. And I felt so good. And the minute I started to feel good, I thought, well, listen, one cheeseburger isn't going to hurt this thing. Here's my problem. I'm not a one cheeseburger kind of guy. One pancake. One this.
So, you're in here going, hey God, I know I'm a mess. Now, let me add real quickly, not as bad as him, not as bad as her, not as bad as them. I'm not ISIS. But I'm not perfect. But then again, nobody is, God. So, here's what I'm going to do. And then you start listing the stuff you're going to do. Well, you're not going to last long.
I don't do it anymore, but I used to do a lot of counseling, arbitration discussions. And in marriage in particular. And you'd see the guy, and the guy would wake and he'd go, alright, I'm not perfect. Alright. You won me over, I'll do this. Let me ask you one question. And this is what they would always ask. How long do I need to do this? Because I'll give it a week or two. But I'm telling you, if she doesn't respond in two weeks, we're not going to come back in here. I'll just get a lawyer on the phone and we're out of this. But I'm going to give it two weeks.
That's the idea of God and religion and negotiating. God, here I am. Look at me. It's Thursday morning. I'm up early. I helped make the coffee. I smiled at people I don't even like this morning. God, you've got to be impressed with that.
Four Takeaways: God Hates Religion
Well, here's the takeaway under the title of God Hates Religion. We've got three minutes. Let me give you four things.
Number one, when you're confronted with sin, religion is your natural flinch. When you're confronted with sin, you're going to want to do before God what you say we can do in the marketplace and pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. You just got to try harder. Give it your best. Go, go, go, go, go.
Here's the second thing. We must outsource our salvation. You can't do it. Somebody else has to do it for you. I was watching a Civil War thing the other day and they were talking about the rich people who were hiring young men to go and take their place in the army and fight. You need not hire, but you need to accept the effort of someone else and that's God who died in your place.
Here's the third thing. God changes you. He transforms your heart and then He'll inform your mind and that should lead to a radical life change. You should be different than you were, whatever, six months ago, six years ago. Now, here you go. I know you're writing, but look up here just for purposes of graphing here. The trajectory is not God saves me and it's going to go like this. The trajectory is God saves me. It's going to fall down here. It's going to go like this. But if I put a line through it, the trajectory is up. I'm a different person and changed.
Here you go. From the inside out. He'll change your heart. He'll change your mind. He'll change your desires. He'll change your wanter.
Here's the last point. And I love this. Beyond saving you, God will use you. Sometimes when this really sinks in, you become almost overwhelmed by your sin and you're so stunned that He would save you that that becomes the baseline and you go, well, He saved me, but use me. I don't think He can use me.
The Four Points Reviewed
Number one, when I'm confronted with sin, religion is my natural flinch. Number two, we must outsource our salvation. Number three, God changes you. And here's the little motto. He transforms your heart, informs your mind, and your life is radically changed. Then number four, beyond saving you, God will use you.
If you're not changed, then something's wrong. And you're going to find it's going to change in the smallest ways. It's going to change your point of view first. It's going to change how you see things and see things around you. And eventually, you're just going to quit desiring certain things. It doesn't mean perfect, but that's the trajectory.
But that last point is, God, beyond saving you, will use you. There's a guy who is really to me a poster boy for this. And he becomes the focus of our study next week. We'll take a look at the life of Peter next week.
Father, thank You for this. And thank You for the truth that You teach us. God, get us past our flinch of religion and help us see that until we come to You in repentance and faith, and accept the work that Your Son did on the cross, and believe in our heart that You raised Him from the dead, that until then, everything else is religion. And religion is something that displeases You. God, help us understand grace. We pray that to You in Christ's name, Amen.