Paul’s Conversion and Commissioning

Passage: Acts 26:12-23

Introduction.

Repetition in Scripture is always a sign of significance and importance.  There are not a lot of pages in God’s divine book so any pages spent repeating something is a call to pay special attention.  Paul’s conversion is told three times in the book of Acts.

This is one of the most famous conversions in the history of Christianity.  One scholar said after the death and resurrection of Jesus there is no other greater event in human history than the conversion to Christianity of Saul of Tarsus.  Another called him the second founder of Christianity.  Paul turned Christianity from a little Jewish sect into a world religion.

Without Paul’s conversion we would have no NT like we have.  We would be devoid of the depths of theology and doctrine revealed in Romans.  Our understanding of justification by faith and salvation by grace would be anemic.  Without Paul there would not be the conversions of Augustine, Luther or Wesley.  In fact, our conversion is tied to Paul’s conversion.

Paul wants King Agrippa to know his radical reversal from a devout Jew, violently persecuting believers in Jesus, to a devout Christian, fearlessly spreading the Gospel against all opposition, can only have one possible explanation.  Jesus of Nazareth who is the Christ appeared to him and commissioned him to be an apostle to take the Gospel to Gentiles.