Endings and Beginnings: The Ending of Saul / The Beginning of Paul

When we confess Christ as our Savior and Lord, the Holy Spirit enters into us and does some stuff! He may give us new gifts, talents, and experiences, or He may use our existing gifts, talents, and experiences (or both!) so that we might do the work of building the kingdom of God.

In this message, Pastor Joe shares the story of Saul, who later became Paul. He speaks from Acts 9 about the ways in which Jesus Christ worked through Saul, blinding him and making him utterly helpless. Jesus also worked through Ananias, a disciple who feared arrest and death at the hands of Saul but who did God’s will and went to Saul, prayed for him, and watched him accept Christ, be baptized, and begin preaching boldly the gospel of Christ. We see how God used the disciples in Damascus to help Saul escape people who were wanting to kill him and how God used Barnabas to tell the disciples in Jerusalem that Jesus had done a mighty work and had brought Saul to Himself.

After Saul came to Jerusalem, we see that the church multiplied and grew in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Pastor Joe asked us to stand up and to fear God and not men, and he asked us to take comfort from the Holy Spirit when men would try to silence us from sharing our witness of Jesus Christ’s work in our lives.