 Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men full of the spirit and of wisdom that we will appoint to this duty. Acts chapter six, verse three. And Stephen, full of grace and power. Everyone flex for me, say power, come on. Yeah, you're gonna be involved this morning. Here we go. And Stephen, full of grace and power was doing great signs and wonders among the people. Acts chapter six, verse eight. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, Lord, Jesus, receive my spirit. And falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And when he has said this, he fell asleep. Acts chapter seven, verses 59 and 60. There were many people who were not named in the book of Acts that preached the gospel faithfully. Many who for Christ's sake gave their lives sacrificially. People who actually persevered under extreme persecution that church history records worship God by singing while they were being slain. Think about that. Worshipping to the point of your own death. So when Luke chooses to write someone's name and shares a little bit more about who they are and what they did, I believe it's beneficial for us all to pay very close attention. Stephen was chosen by the early church to serve the people. Stephen was filled with the spirit of God and wisdom and many people witnessed this feeling by the miracles that he performed. So what happened? How do we go from seeing this beautiful life in Acts chapter six to witnessing his brutal death in Acts chapter seven? Again, Stephen picked by the people, performed miracles with power and dies by persecution. What happened? Better question, who happened? Who happened? And if you have your Bibles and I hope that you do, open them up to Acts chapter eight. Acts chapter eight, we're gonna read the first three verses together. As you turn there, I wanna say hello to the family at Portage and the family online. Love you guys. Acts chapter eight, read the first three verses together. This is God's word. And Saul approved his execution, speaking of Stephen. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem. And they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great limitation over him. But Saul, everyone say Saul. Saul was ravaging the church and entering house after house. He dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. Who happened? Saul happened. Saul happened. And the title of today's message is the fall and rise of Saul to Paul. The fall and rise of Saul to Paul. Let's pray. Father, we love you. Jesus, we adore you. And Holy Spirit, we desperately need you. God, will we know not teach us? Will we have not please give us? And will we are not please make us? For your glory and our good in Jesus' name. And everyone said, amen, amen. Are you ready? All right, let's do it. Let's do it. So the fall and rise of Saul to Paul, we're gonna begin focusing first on the fall by getting to know a little bit more about who this Saul character is in this story, right? So in verse one, we see that Saul actually approved the execution of Stephen. Like he endorsed it, right? At some level, he has some authority. And then in Acts chapter eight, verse three, we see what Saul does with the authority given to him. It says again, but Saul was ravaging the church and entering house after house. He dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. Luke, who's the author of Acts, is so descriptive. Listen to his language. He says, Saul is ravaging the church, causing harm, severe distress. And then he gives us examples. He says, Saul enters the homes of believers dragging men and women from them. Use your holy imagination. Picture the fight, the struggle. Imagine possibly the mothers and fathers reaching for their children while Saul drags them off to prison. Have to set the stage this morning because Saul wasn't just a bad dude who met Jesus and became better. No, Saul's actions were demonic, demonic. So I mean like, wow, he's gonna go for it. Yeah, I'm going for it today. Because the Bible says it. His actions were demonic. Luke writes that Saul was breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. Listen to how Luke describes him. Breathing threats? I mean, I've heard a bad breath, but think about that. Like breathing threats and murder, it's in him, it's what he does. It's what he's about. His actions were demonic. One way the authors describe the evil one of Scripture, the authors of Scripture say that Satan is the accuser of the brother, right? He's the accuser of the brethren. Well, Saul is an assassin of the church. He's an assassin. Jesus says that the thief comes to still kill and destroy. But when Saul was thinking of his life in that time, listen what he says in Galatians chapter one, he says, for you have heard of my former life and Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. Saul was committed to crushing the early church. That was his commitment. Acts chapter nine records that he even went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus. Why did he do that? So that if he found any belonging to the way, and these are believers, men or women, he might bring them down to Jerusalem. That's Acts nine, one and two. Think about the intentionality of this man's mission in his life. He would travel great distances to capture all those who claim that Jesus was Lord. This is this man, Saul. Who is Saul? At this point in the story of Acts, Saul arises as the named villain, whose life's purpose is to search and destroy all things connected to Jesus. That's who this Saul is. But like any great story, there's a plot twist. There's a radical change. Saul falls. Saul falls. Saul goes from being predator to prey. From hunter to hunted. Acts nine, 2325 records when many days that passed the Jews plotted to kill him, him and Saul. But their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, luring him in a basket. So Saul, this mighty man, this feared man who starts off breeding threats and murder against the people of God are now, he's now having people look to kill him day and night. Saul, the one who drags off people out of their homes now needing to hide in homes. What happened? How did Saul fall? How does he go from being this feared enemy to one literally needing an escape route out of cities that he visit? What happened? Better question. Who happened? Who happened? Go to Acts chapter nine. Acts chapter nine, beginning with verse three. This is God's word. Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him and falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? He said, who are you, Lord? He said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting, but rise and enter the city and you will be told what you are to do. The man who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground and although his eyes were open, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days, he was without sight and neither ate nor drank. Who happened, church? Jesus happened. Jesus happened. Jesus enters the story, right? The one who was crucified now resurrected Jesus. Not the myth of Jesus, not the philosophy of Jesus, not this legend of Jesus, but the actual Christ, the person of Jesus speaks to Saul. Remember the last time that we see Jesus having a conversation in this letter is in Acts chapter one. Let me remind you that when he was speaking to the disciples, he says this, he says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all the Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the earth. And when he has said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. Listen what Jesus says. Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will come. Jesus says that they will receive power. Jesus says that they will be his witnesses. Jesus says that his life, his love, his message will not just go in Jerusalem, stay there or Judea or Samaria. It will go to the end of the earth. Saul on his way to Damascus, violently working to destroy the church, meets Jesus who promised to build the church. He meets that Jesus. Question, who's gonna win that battle? Oh, Jesus says, Jesus wins. Listen, the work that Jesus did while he was on earth is of utmost importance, but we cannot forget that since his ascension, Jesus is still working. On the cross when he said it is finished, he wasn't saying I am finished. He's still at work. He's still doing things on earth. And think about it in this story. The one seeking to stop the body of Christ finds himself being sought out by the head of the body, King Jesus. This moment of Saul meeting Jesus is a sign to the world that no one is going to stop what Jesus started. No one's gonna stop it. That this gospel of Jesus will go out from Jerusalem till the ends of the earth. Church, I need you to rejoice. Look at this map. Let's put this map on the screen. This is a map showing you Jerusalem to Kalamazoo. Think about what I said. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Doesn't Kalamazoo look like very far away from Jerusalem? Church, why do you need to rejoice when you see this map? Because what Jesus said, it is happening. It is getting done. We are here this morning because Jesus wasn't exaggerating. Oh man, somebody ought to need to wake up this morning. Come on, now listen, there's a lot of work that still has to be done. But look at this map. There's a lot of work. There's a lot of many, many people who have not heard the gospel. We have a lot of work to do. But listen, the gospel cannot be stopped. The message is getting out. We started thousands of years ago with changing lives today. And that's why we do kingdom builders. We believe that God, let's just receive this unshakable kingdom and be a part of what he's doing in the earth. This is more than a story. This is reality. This is truth. And like the apostles, we now have the Holy Spirit. We have been given power to be his witnesses. And even as people lose their lives today under persecution, the church will never die. She will only multiply. And that's good news. You can't stop her. As Jesus speaks to Saul, I love it, man. When Jesus speaks to Saul, he tells Saul who he's really up against. Jesus asks Saul, why are you persecuting them? No. He says, why are you persecuting me? He takes it personally. He takes it personally. When Saul responds, who are you? Jesus says, I am Jesus. And the Pentecostal in me ran around my house when I read those words last night. I am Jesus. Let's really think about this revelation for Saul up to this point. Up to this point, this Jesus is just some dead dude who was causing ruckus and trouble. And now we see Saul here in his story on the ground, blind, speaking directly to the one he has been persecuting. Saul falls, but that's not the end of his story, is it? Saul also rises. Saul goes from being the persecutor to being the preacher. Saul rises. Now the question is, how does he rise? How we know that he rises? Question is, how does he rise? Look at Acts nine again, starting at verse 10. Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias, and he said, here I am, Lord. And the Lord said to him, rise and go to the street, straight, and at the end of the house of Judas, look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying. And he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias calmly lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight. I love Ananias, but Ananias answered, Lord, you know I've heard some things about this guy. The Bible is real. Listen, we have to be real in church if we want to see God's real power. Listen how practically, Ananias is like, Lord, I've heard from many people. I've heard many about this man. How much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to buying all who call on your name. But the Lord said to him, go. For he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. So Ananias departed and entered the house and laying his hands on him, he said, Brother Saul, stop. Think about who he's calling up, brother. And then think about Saul hearing that. Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized and taking food. He was strengthened. Question, how does Saul rise? Answer, Saul rises by God sending him a brother to help him rise. Saul rises by God sending him a brother to help him rise. God tells Ananias to rise and go to Saul which leads to Saul's rising. Right, Saul regains his strength. Saul regains his sight. He is baptized. He's filled with the Spirit partly due to Ananias's obedience to go to him in the first place. We may be saying like, why does this matter, Tim? I'm glad you asked that question. Here it is. Don't miss this church. We don't need the church to fall but we do need the church to rise. You hear me? We don't need the church to fall but we need the church to rise. Let me break it down for you. Some of you like break it down and I will break it down. Here we go. We don't need any help living for ourselves. Yeah, I'm talking about you and me. I don't need anyone's help in this room at Portage Oral Line to help me sin. I can sin all by myself. I don't need anyone's help to live for myself, to live according to the Spirit of the age. I'm capable of doing that all by myself but we all need the church, the body of Christ to live for Jesus and with Jesus who is the head of the body. We all do. And we see this is true of Saul with Ananias and we see it again in Acts chapter nine beginning with verse 26. Watch this. And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples, the speaking of Saul and they were all afraid of him, duh. For they did not believe that he was a disciple but Barnabas, everyone say Barnabas. But Barnabas took him in and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road what happened, he has seen the Lord who spoke to him and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. So he went in and out from among Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. Saul needed Ananias, Barnabas and many others to come around him, to rally beside him, to be the man that God created him to be. Church, listen. If Jesus connects himself and his work to the church, who are we to disconnect our relationship with Jesus from the church? Oh, I'm gonna go there. Some of you gonna send me emails and I'm gonna love it. I'm gonna love reading all of it. Let me go against this attitude that's in just a lot of Western Christianity. I don't need the church, I just need Jesus. Oh, it's just me and Jesus. Can I show you what we look like when we say that? When we think that, when we feel that? I actually have a prop for you. Let me, let me get that prop. Let me show you what you look like when we say, I don't need the body of Christ, I just need the head. This is what you look like. Just me and Jesus. What? Yeah, it is creepy. You know why it's creepy? You know why it's creepy? And I love this thing because for you who say you don't need the body of Christ, we just need the head. Who told you that? It is creepy. You're creepy. We're creepy. When we say, oh, all I need is Jesus, I don't need the body of Christ, did the head of the body tell you you don't need his body? Like God coming into the garden, I'm coming to you right now in 2022. Who told you that? Who told you you don't need the body? Who told you that the body doesn't need you? Who told you that you can have a healthy, vibrant Christian life with the head of the body without the rest of the what? The body. Oh, Tim, all I need is Jesus. This is what you look like. This is what I look like. I thought that forever. Oh, all I need is Jesus. I don't need the church. This is what you look like. So that we are not distracted. Can you please take this? This is kind of creepy. You're right. Come on, let's go there. The body of Christ, the church is vital to living out your faith. For those who say, I don't need the church to have a healthy Christian life. My question in you is this, who told you that? Who's the source? You think it came from the head of the body? Did the head of the body, Jesus, tell you not to be a part of his body? Probably not. Probably not. Now listen, I want to acknowledge that there could be people here today that we the church at large, or even our church, radiant church, has sinned against. There could be people listening to me right here in Richland, portage or online. And you're still trying to manage the pain in your life because of what we have caused or what another church has caused. Please listen to me when I say this. I am sorry. I apologize. I mean, I know the details, but if we have sinned against you, I want to say from the bottom of my heart this morning, I'm sorry. I apologize for the action or inaction that caused the offense and I'm asking you to forgive the church, to forgive us. Listen, this is real because a part of Saul's story was having to face people who he severely hurt. Ask for their forgiveness and be received by them. How could they do that? How could he find the strength and the love required to receive a man like Saul knowing the evil that he did? Well, remember Stephen, and as they were stoning Stephen, he called out Lord Jesus, receive my spirit and falling to his knees. He cried out with a loud voice. Lord, do not hold this sin against them. Maybe one reason how they could forgive and receive Saul, maybe one reason is the fact that Jesus heard the painful prayer, the final cry of one of his dear sons, Stephen, who asked Jesus in his final moments not to hold this sin against them. Saul was one of them. Saul was one of them. Saul, who approved Stephen's execution, becomes someone who exalts Christ, partly because Stephen prayed for Jesus to forgive him. Look at the power of prayer. Do you hear the echoes of the gospel in this story? Like Stephen, there was a man chosen not by the people, but by God. A man full of the spirit and wisdom. A man full of grace and power. A man who did great wonders and signs among people. A man who had his death on a cross, cried God. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. This man is named Jesus. And when he cried out and asked the father, Father, forgive them, we were one of them. You and I were one of them. And Jesus commands us all who have received his love and forgiveness freely to now freely give his love and forgiveness as a command for those who have received it. We the church, listen. We the church are the chosen family on earth to catch people when they fall and to help them rise. That is our goal. That is our duty. That is our job. We're uniquely placed on the earth to be a community of grace. And it's gonna require forgiveness. It's gonna require us laying down our rights and our opinions and our truths and a humility love one another the way crisis loved us. It's gonna require that. And as one pastor, Matt Chandler said, he said, listen, some of us are falling away from Jesus because of what one follower did. Hear me. This is what he says and I quote, people didn't stop following Jesus because of Judas. People didn't stop following Jesus because of Judas. You're gonna come to radiant church and guess what? You're gonna find not just imperfect people. You're gonna find imperfect pastors. And I'm one of them. Get around me close enough. Some of you don't like me already. I can tell what your face is all good. But some of you who still like me just hang out. I'm gonna sit against you. Please offer forgiveness. Let's have real conversations the way they had real conversations about him. Let's not fight against each other and fight for one another. Let's do that church. If any community on earth is us. Here's another plot twist for the story. Saul needed the church. Here's crazy. And now the church actually needs Saul. Saul will eventually become an apostle, a major leader in the church that we know him as commonly known as Paul. And he understood and wrote in later in his life how we need one another to fulfill the calling Jesus has created us for. So Paul now later writes in Ephesians for we are his workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we shall walk in them. We are his workmanship. Yes, that includes you. But let's not make this selfish. It's like, I'm just a masterpiece of Jesus. No, we collectively. Don't read me when Paul says we, okay? Later in that same chapter he says, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord and him you also were being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit. Do you hear the community and what Paul understands? He says saints, members of the household of God, apostles, prophets. Jesus of course is the cornerstone joined together being built together. Listen, if we want to be where God dwells a good place to start is to be a part of his body. Listen, don't get this, some of us got this Moses idea around the presence of God as if you have to go on a holy hike to get closer to Jesus. How about first get connected to his body? God is in the room today church because you're in the room today church. You have, you've received the same spirit that rose Christ from the grave. And if you want to get close to God some of that will require you getting closer to those who has his name, who carry his spirit who are ambassadors of Christ. I'm telling you, God did not die on the, Jesus did not die on the cross so that we can attend church. He died on the cross so that we can become the church. I'm telling you, listen to that. Imagine, imagine the grace we could offer the world. Even our enemies, if we truly believed that there is no one on earth that is too far gone just some few lessons we can learn. Imagine if we believed that the resurrected Jesus actually listens and answers our prayers that he's not indifferent, that he goes into action, that motivate us, wake us up, deliver us from the deception of prayerlessness. Maybe we're not hard at working at prayer because we don't believe prayer works. But for those of us who don't believe prayer works it's actually another level of deception. You don't believe God is at work. I'm not trying to convince you that prayer works. I'm trying to convince you that God is working because if I can convince you that God is always on the move you will want to be a part of what he's doing in the earth and the one chosen vehicle he uses is prayer. I don't want you to love prayer. I want you to love God. Because when you start to love God you love talking to him. Imagine how our lives would be if we could lay our hands on someone and call them brother, sister solely because they belong to Jesus. Like that's the only reason. Not because of where they live not because of where they look like not because of their social economic standards not because of who they vote for hello solely because they're a believer. What would your life look like if every believer, everyone who proclaims Christ you saw them as your family? How much glory would God receive if we loved him that way and loved others that way? Imagine if the story that we read doesn't just remain in our Bibles on the pages and print but that the Holy Spirit that inspired Luke to write these words leapt off the page got into our minds and into our hearts. And we understood that whether we are falling today or whether we're helping someone rise today that Jesus is Lord, that his church is growing that no one can stop him. And since God is for us who can stand against us? Imagine if we believe that Saul falls. Saul rises. Jesus is Lord. Would you stand? Please stand. As we stand and listen, I'm a little early so I'm watching y'all like, oh, I gotta go. Oh, I can go. Listen, stay engaged as we stand. Stay engaged. This morning I'm believing God that we're gonna have our altars filled because God wants to fill us and empower us to only listen and not to just receive this word but to let it go down deep, take root in our lives and bear fruit. There are some here today that you may not even be seeking God at all. You may be here because someone invited you or you just said, hey, maybe I'll give God a shot but I wanna tell you wherever you may find yourself you're not here by accident and you may not have to be seeking after God but just like Saul, he was headed in the wrong direction persecuting Jesus and Jesus was going after him. And I'm believing because you're here that Jesus is going after you. Some of you, you're not about to fall, you have fallen. We gotta get real in church. Your life is a mess. And you just need hope. You need strength. You need to be built up. You need to be encouraged. Some of us here, forgiveness, when I hit on that it touched you, trust me. When I was writing, I believed God said, Tim, you're gonna be speaking to some people. Some of you, man, it's just someone who has sinned against you, have done evil against you. And listen, when Saul meets Jesus it's not like there's just a magic eraser like his former life didn't matter. Of course it mattered. There are many people who are hurt. And some of you, you've been hurt. You've been hurt by someone you love, someone close, a friend. And maybe you've been hurt by the church at large. Maybe you've been hurt by this church. Can I tell you there's healing for you too? There's healing for you. For some of you, you're here and I don't wanna minimize anyone coming to church this morning. We love that. But your next step is not just to attend but to actually become a part. Become a part of it. Listen, that's why we do things like be radiant class and that's why we do things like groups. This isn't a marketing strategy for the end of my sermon. No, you need the church and the church needs you. You need the church and we need you. We need you being exactly who God created you to be. We need you built up. We need you encouraged. We need you filled with the spirit of God. We need you operating in his gifts. Why? Because when you win, we all win. It's no competition. Jesus is first. We're not competing for second place. We need you in his body. And the way I want us to close our time together is that if you connect with anything that I said or maybe you wanna stand in a gap for someone that you know needs this, before we invite the prayer partners up, I actually just wanna call people forward. Just come to the altar, see this beautiful sea of people, the body of Christ and I want us just to pray together before I release all of us. We're gonna just pray together, turn this thing into a prayer meeting. So if you need prayer around any of that or you know someone who needs prayer and you're just saying, man, something hitting me, God, I just wanna be exactly who you created me to be. Whether it's fall or rise, I wanna invite you now to make your way to the front and let's close and praying together. Come on, right now, make your way to the front. Make your way to the front. Let's fill the altars. There's no shame in this, let's go. Come on, come on their space, fill the altars. We're just gonna pray together, I'm gonna pray for you. We're gonna encourage each other. Even right now, church, clap your hands as people making their way to the front. Come on, come on, we're just gonna pray together, encourage one another. We all need it, we all need it. Yeah, yeah, we're all one body. There's not those who came and those who didn't, we're one body. Those of you in your seats, would you just stretch forth your hands to your brothers and sisters? Those of you who are here, you could just hold your hands out and we're just gonna pray for you. And church, as I pray, this is not a show, I want you to pray. I want you to lift up your voice. You don't know their names or stories, but God does and we're gonna minister to every single person who's up front. Yes, Father, right now, we pray for your sons and your daughters. Those who you know and love, those that you care for, those that you came and you took their sin and you took their shame, those you rose from the grave, you ascended into heaven, you're interceding on their behalf right now. So we join with heaven. We join with heaven. Father, you are listening. Jesus, you are interceding. Holy Spirit, you are praying prayers that we can't put words to. And so God, we ask that your kingdom will come, your will be done in their life. God, we ask for an inner healing right now in the name of Jesus. God, things that has happened to them or things that they have done to others, God, we pray that they would freely receive the forgiveness of Jesus and the love of Jesus, that the blood of Jesus will wash over their mind, body, spirit, and soul. God, that they will be new creations because they trust in you. God, I declare that today is the day that the Lord has made. God, I declare today that there is new mercies for them, new mercies. And I ask that they would experience that and that they would encounter you this week. God, just as you encountered Saul, I ask that you would speak to them powerfully. God, that you would speak destiny and purpose. Lord God, that they would feel the anointing of the Spirit of God, rise up within them and cause them a walk according to your will and to your way. Create in them clean hearts, give them the mind of Christ and empower them to be exactly who you created them to be. And finally, God, we ask that you would feel them so much so that they will let the whole world know that Jesus is alive, that Jesus is Lord, that they will be a part of your mission. God, I'm believing right now, those who came forward, there are some who need to go, not just on a trip, but you're calling them to a nation, you're calling them to a neighborhood and they're gonna lay down their life, they're gonna stop chasing the American dream and they're gonna live for the kingdom of God. And we ask that our sons and your sons, your daughters, our brothers and sisters will rise up, take their place in your kingdom and be who you created them to be. And that is in Jesus' name that we pray and everybody said, amen, amen. Come on, let's praise God, church. Let's praise God, church. Yup.