Acts 9:1-19 | God Can Save Anyone. Anyone!Sample

Saul thought he would enter Damascus as a proud Jewish leader with his mission of rooting out Christians, winning the admiration and prestige of the Sanhedrin. But when Saul met Jesus, everything changed. Jesus confronted Saul with his sin, and he entered Damascus as a blind, humble man.

It must not have been easy. Even apart from the physical struggle and dependency on others, he lost an internal sense of dependency on himself. Imagine coming to a place where you realize that everything you stand for and everything you base your life on is ultimately wrong-directed. Maybe you can. Saul did. And the good news of Acts is that God even saves people from wrong-directed lives.

Paul later writes that the joy of knowing Jesus far exceeds everything he left behind. (By Acts 13, Saul starts to go by the name Paul. This name change may go hand-in-hand with his new identity and new direction in Christ.) He says that everything he once counted “gains” he now considers “losses” for the sake of Christ. He calls it by a Greek word pronounced skybala – “rubbish,” “garbage,” “dung,” or probably more expletive.

Paul came to see his life’s prior pursuits proved futile compared to Jesus Christ. Paul came to see he was blinded by his pride, persecution, and self-righteousness as he came to see Jesus clearly. That’s what Jesus does. He helps us see the dead-ends of our many pursuits as we turn to him and find what’s really important.