On Sunday, Rev. Paul Comer gave a great message on the conversion of the apostle Paul. This article is a summary on my notes on his sermon.

Paul is first mentioned in Acts 7:59 giving approval to Stephen’s death. In Acts 8 he is seen persecuting the church, going from house to house and dragging off Christians to prison. Paul was doing all of this, he thought, in service to God. Paul says in Acts 26:4 that he lived as a Pharisee and did all he could to oppose Jesus. Paul thought he was on God’s side. Jesus was a threat to Paul’s whole worldview. Paul was searching for God’s best but only in a very small way and in a very small world.

But God changed Paul’s life through his miraculous experience on the Damascus road. Paul was blinded and went for 3 days without food or drink and it was at this time that he began to die to self (Galatians 2:20; Philippians 1:21; 2 Corinthians 5:17).

Paul’s life was forever changed. He went on to give his testimony three times in Acts and numerous times in his letters. He called himself the chief of sinners, which was an appropriate title in light of his past persecution of Christians.

Paul would go on to focus in ministry on winning the lost, discipling them, and building churches. Paul majored in the gospel (Romans 1:15-16) but he was not simply an evangelist who was out to get people saved, he desired to make disciples, to plant churches, to have a ministry which would multiply through the lives of those whom he had reached with the gospel.

Points of Application for Our Lives:

• We must actively seek to share the gospel.
• We must not hesitate to share the gospel.
• We must remember that we are not responsible for how people respond to the gospel.
• We must love and pray for those who mistreat us because of the Gospel, following the example of the Lord Jesus and of Stephen.

In the end, the transformed Paul would die with no regrets, knowing he had fought the good fight, finished the course and kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:6-8). May it be so for us.