April 27, 2025 • 24 mins
What does it really mean to follow Jesus? In a world of easy labels and shallow faith, Paul’s story reminds us that true discipleship calls for radical transformation.
Originally preached to Ekklesia Churches by Dan on February 16, 2025.
This message from Galatians 1:11–24 examines Paul’s personal testimony to show how God initiates salvation, calls us to genuine repentance, and empowers us to live as new creations.
Teaching Highlights:
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Discipleship means personally following Jesus, not just His teachings.
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True repentance involves forsaking the old life and stepping into new obedience.
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Our transformation becomes a powerful testimony to God’s grace.
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God initiates salvation, and we are called to respond with surrendered lives.
Paul’s radical turnaround is not just his story — it’s the pattern for every believer.
Learn more about us at EkklesiaChurches.org.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
This message is from Galatians chapter 1 verses 11 through 24 and is entitled "Called to be Disciples."
It was originally delivered to Ecclesia churches on Sunday, February 16, 2025.
In this passage, we see the various ways that God used Paul's story with all of his previous self-righteousness,
(00:24):
his sin, his past as a persecutor of Christ, and he uses it for God's glory and for the sake of the gospel.
We can see the way that God moved in the life of Paul, how God was glorified through Paul's response to that movement,
and how the change that was evident in Paul's life is a powerful tool in the hands of God for the sake of his kingdom.
(00:45):
So let's read this passage together, starting with verse 11.
"For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel,
or I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church violently and tried to destroy it,
(01:11):
and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people,
and so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.
But when he who had set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his son to me
in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone,
(01:36):
nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia and I returned again to Damascus.
Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days,
but I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother.
In what I am writing to you before God I do not lie.
(01:59):
Then I went into the regions of Syria and Selecia, and I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.
They only were hearing it said, "He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy, and they glorified God because of me."
(02:21):
So in this passage Paul is sharing his own story and he's talking about him becoming a disciple of Jesus.
And so we're going to talk about what it means to be called as a disciple of Jesus.
And we probably need to start by defining what a disciple is.
So in the first century a disciple was someone who completely devoted themselves to the following and the learning from a teacher or a master, in this case a rabbi.
(02:50):
And this went beyond mere like academic learning and classes.
These disciples would often live with their teacher following their teacher, adopting their lifestyle and their ways of thinking.
Everything about them was formed by this teacher.
And Jesus kind of redefined discipleship in a couple of key ways.
(03:14):
First, he called his disciples to follow him rather than just his teachings.
In Mark 117 he says, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men."
I love the way that Pastor Jason Shepherd says this.
He says, "We can't simply follow the ways of Jesus and be a Christian.
(03:35):
We have to follow Jesus as the way."
There's a difference between just learning the ways that Jesus taught and trying to live according to those ways and actually following Jesus himself as the way, the truth and the life and the only way to God the Father.
Second, we have to repent of our own ways.
(03:58):
We can't keep our old life, our old ways, our old preferences, our old habits and still follow Jesus.
We can't drag those things along with us.
All of these things are submitted to Jesus.
Jesus in Luke 1433 says, "Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple."
(04:19):
If you remember the story of the rich man who came to Jesus and asked, you know, how do I get into heaven?
Jesus said, "Well, first you have to follow all the law," which he knew was impossible to do.
The man naively says, "Oh, of course, I followed all the law," meaning I'm a good Jew.
I followed the law since that's what I was taught to do.
And Jesus says, "Okay, great.
(04:41):
Now sell everything that you have and come follow me."
And the man can't do it.
He can't leave the things that he owns behind in order to follow Jesus because he was wealthy.
That was going to be too painful for him.
Finally, Jesus says at the very end that disciples of his are going to make disciples.
In fact, that's the command he gives them in Matthew 28, 19 through 20.
(05:04):
"Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you."
And so it doesn't end with you because it's not about you.
It's about Jesus and it's about his call to everyone.
So a disciple is going to be actively sharing the gospel and teaching people who respond to the gospel how to follow Jesus.
(05:34):
So a working definition for us this morning is a disciple is someone who personally follows Jesus, not just his teachings.
Who turns from their old sinful life, we call that repenting, and helps other disciples to do the same.
So in the first few verses of our passage today, Paul actually makes another distinction that's helpful as we get into that.
(05:57):
He's setting himself apart not only as a disciple, but as an apostle.
So let's talk about that.
Verse 11, "For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel."
"For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ."
(06:20):
So here Paul is setting himself apart as an apostle and it's important for us to distinguish what that means.
We live in an age today in 2025 of many churches and people that are part of a movement where they claim to be apostles,
which is really something quite new.
This trend of modern self-proclaimed apostles really gained momentum in the late 20th century,
(06:47):
particularly during the 80s and 90s with the rise of a movement called the New Apostolic Reformation, or NAR.
And in this movement, which was really big in Pentecostal and Charismatic circles,
they promote the idea, which is not a biblical idea, that God is somehow now restoring the office of apostle to the modern church.
(07:09):
So they recognize that it ceased with the original apostles, but now they say, "Oh, but now it's coming back."
And there's new apostles in the church that are giving this special anointing.
So despite that being a significant departure from traditional Christian understanding of the office.
So that's something that's happening today.
(07:30):
This sets Paul apart as an apostle.
It's a specific role, which we will define as a disciple of Jesus who received the gospel from Jesus directly,
because that's what Paul says, primarily during his earthly ministry.
In verse 17, he also says, it references the apostles that came before him, talking about the twelve disciples of Jesus.
(07:52):
But he's never going to refer to anyone coming after him.
He's never going to establish new apostles, nor will any of the other disciples.
In fact, he'll say in 1 Corinthians 15, 8, and 9 that he was actually the last of the apostles.
In Ephesians 2, 19 through 20, he writes to the church and says,
"You are no longer strangers and aliens.
(08:14):
You are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets."
Jesus Christ himself being the cornerstone.
So here we are called to be disciples.
We are empowered by the foundational work of the prophets and the apostles to do that, but we don't need to be apostles.
(08:38):
And honestly, this makes me think of a movie from my childhood about the movie Toy Story,
where Buzz just realizes at this point that he's a toy and he's not a real space ranger,
and he's really down about it.
And Woody the cowboy looks at Buzz and he says, "Being a toy is a lot better than being a space ranger,"
because Woody gets that his value isn't tied up in the title, but rather in belonging to Andy.
(09:05):
So there's a little bit of Toy Story theology for you.
The out of line is that you're not an apostle, and that's okay.
You are a loved disciple called by God to make disciples.
And so just to kind of recap, a disciple of Jesus is someone who follows Jesus personally and learns his ways.
Somebody who repents of old ways instead of obeys their own desires,
(09:30):
instead they obey the commands and teachings of Jesus.
And somebody who makes disciples helps other people to come to the knowledge of Christ and to obey him.
That's what it means to be a disciple.
That's what it means to be a Christian.
And this is what Paul was calling people to.
And that's kind of challenging because that's way more involved than the Christianity that I think we've been sold in the modern day.
(09:53):
A Christianity in which we only call ourselves a follower of Christ is not Christianity at all.
And we'll actually talk about that more in our midweek gathering this week.
So how does that happen or come about?
Do we wake up one morning and just decide to choose God?
Well, Paul doesn't think so.
Scripture doesn't teach that.
So let's keep going.
This is verse 13.
(10:15):
"For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.
And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age and among my people.
So extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.
But when he who had set me apart, that is God,
before I was born and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his son to me,
(10:42):
in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles."
God is the one to initiate the change.
God is the one to reveal himself to us.
We could get into a discussion about predestination in this passage.
Certainly there's some to be talked about there,
but understanding what Paul is trying to get across is more important.
(11:05):
God made the first move.
God interrupted Paul's path to destruction.
It is by grace alone that we are saved and not because we had the good sense to seek out God.
He does the same thing today as John wrote in 1 John 419.
"We love because he first loved us."
(11:28):
This is the perfect, simple illustration of the divine initiative,
God's movement in our salvation and relationship with God.
So those of us who are saved can know that it is purely by the grace of God,
not by any work that we have done and we have nothing to boast about,
but in the work of Christ redeeming us.
(11:49):
A few more verses here.
Ephesians 2, 8-9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith."
And this is not your own doing.
It is the gift of God, not a result of work, so that no one may boast.
Titus 3, verse 5 says, "He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness,
but according to his own mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit."
(12:18):
Those of us who have not yet committed your lives to Jesus and been baptized in his name,
God is pursuing you.
He will not compel or force you to respond,
but he will continue to wait with open arms for you to respond.
Let's talk about what that response looks like,
and let's begin with how Paul's life changed, how he turned from his sin and served Jesus instead.
(12:45):
This is the end of verse 16.
"I did not immediately consult with anyone, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me,
but I went away into Arabia and returned again to Damascus.
Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him for 15 days."
Cephas would be Peter, by the way.
(13:06):
"But I saw none other of the apostles except James the Lord's brother.
In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie."
Paul was not responding to any social pressure to convert to Christianity.
In fact, the pressure was quite the opposite.
After being founded by Jesus on the road to Damascus, he begins on this path and he does not look back.
(13:30):
Paul, in this passage, will talk about how he didn't even go to see the other apostles for three years.
Even though he feels less than qualified based on his past, as he will allude to in other passages,
he is going to operate in the fullness of what he was called to do by Jesus as an apostle.
So, as we've already established, we are not called to be apostles.
(13:54):
Full stop. That's not the message here.
The message is that Paul, when called, had to choose to respond.
The message is that witnessing someone turn from their sin is a miracle.
And if you want to see a miracle, look to people in the church who are dying to old habits,
(14:15):
old greed, old influences, old lifestyles and are repenting.
Repentance is a miracle.
Repentance is something that is enabled by God for us to abandon and turn away from the old things and turn to Him instead.
So, Paul turns around and from this point on, his life looks entirely different.
(14:38):
Now, doubtless, he grew in grace.
He grew in his knowledge and understanding of how all Scripture pointed to Jesus,
but there is an unmistakable pivot moment,
because he did not continue in the power and mission of the Jewish leaders to persecute the church.
He did not continue hating followers of Christ and seeking their downfall.
(15:01):
In fact, his pivot was so strong that he went to a place where he had not spent time before
to get away from the life that he had been in.
So, I think a good question is how might God desire to use our turning from a broken past to glorify Himself?
(15:24):
How might our repentance serve as a witness to the people who knew or know us best?
We can say, "I was once among the worst of sinners and I have been saved by Jesus, and now I am turning to Him."
That turning is a witness in itself.
So, when you feel less qualified, less than qualified to share the gospel because of your past,
(15:52):
I want you to see God's perspective here.
Repentance is the call to all believers and the forgiveness of God is complete because of the work of Jesus.
The Psalmist foretells this new solution in Psalm 103 verse 12, and he's talking about that day that Christ will take care of all sin.
(16:14):
He says, "As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us."
Notice, he's referring to the work of Christ.
He removes our transgressions from us, right?
We might turn to Jesus, but it is Jesus who removes those.
What happens when we repent? We are forgiven, but something else comes to you.
(16:38):
Acts 319 says, "Repent therefore and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord."
Talking about the Holy Spirit being at work, times of refreshing also aren't just for you because when you become a temple of the Holy Spirit,
(17:00):
you usher the presence of Christ into the world around you.
Your act of repentance, of turning from who you were, is a witness to the watching world.
So, we have God moving, right? This process of becoming a disciple of Jesus.
We have God moving first. We have us responding to Him through repentance.
(17:23):
What happens after that? Well, God says, "The new creation happens."
In this ultimate turnabout, for Paul, God uses his past as a persecutor of the church and his life change to glorify himself.
This is verse 21, "Then I went into the regions of Syria and Salisya, and I was still unknown, in person, to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.
(17:52):
They only were hearing it said, 'He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy, and they glorified God because of me.'"
Look at what they are saying in verse 23. "He who used to is now."
(18:13):
The dramatic change is a testimony in itself.
Before they respond to the message he is preaching, they actually respond to the change in him that they have witnessed.
They say, "How is this person the same?" And the honest conclusion that they have to come to is that he is not the same.
Because now they are seeing Jesus reflected in him. This transformation into a new creation is powerfully spoken of in Scripture.
(18:39):
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come."
The old sinful life has passed away. The new has come in the form of the Holy Spirit.
So what does that look like? What does that look like for us? How is Jesus calling you into a different life?
(19:05):
What might he want to change in you to reflect this new life that he has called you to?
We are called, just like Paul, out of destruction and into a life of faith.
Out of a life of wickedness and sin and into a life of glorifying God through the work of Jesus Christ.
(19:28):
And if you can see, there are two questions here. What are you called out of? And what are you called into?
Without the balance of these two questions, we end up with a version of Christianity that, again, isn't Christianity.
If we only talk about what we're called out of, only repenting, we end up just trying to kind of avoid all of the old things.
(19:52):
Following Jesus starts to feel like we're just trying to avoid the old and hold on for Jesus to return. That's not it.
The call is to get busy. Every old thing forsaken makes room for new, holy work.
Paul writes in Ephesians 2.10, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
(20:16):
which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Every sin that we turn from creates a space in our lives for the good works that God has already prepared for us to do."
How exciting is that? So we can't just continue to step out of the old. We have to actually step in to something new, right?
(20:41):
At the same time, we can't forget that repentance. We can't do the only called into. When we try to do it that way,
we're only trying to step into what is new while clinging to every old priority practice and habit.
That's not what Scripture teaches. It says, "No, forsake the old life and everything that doesn't lead you into being a disciple of Jesus."
(21:03):
Paul talks about this in Colossians 3.9-10. He says, "Don't lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices
and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator."
So this is an ongoing process. But it has two parts where we are forsaking the old
(21:28):
and we are taking part of the good works that Christ has called us into.
We believe that while salvation is instantaneous, the work of being made holy called sanctification is ongoing.
So the question is now, what is the next step of obedience that you need to take?
(21:51):
Jesus called his disciples to drop their nets and follow. So what's the one thing that you need to drop?
Think about that today. What is one thing that you need to drop?
And what's one thing or area where you need to step into the obedience of following Jesus into the good work of being a disciple of Christ?
(22:14):
So as we close up today, we've seen that God calls us into a completely new life as a disciple through Jesus Christ.
First, God is the initiator of our salvation. He calls us by His grace, just as He called Paul.
None of us can boast about finding God. He found us. He pursues us. He makes the first move.
(22:36):
And then we're called to respond with genuine repentance.
Repentance, like Paul, this means a complete turnaround in our lives.
Repentance isn't just a feeling of being sorry. It's actively turning away from our old life and turning towards Christ.
I've had this conversation with some of my children, even in the last week, that when you hurt somebody, you can't just yell, "I'm sorry," and run away.
(23:02):
You have to apologize, but then you have to repent. You have to turn away from doing that so that you don't do it again a minute later.
And that change of turning away from our old life and turning towards Christ is a powerful witness to others.
And then finally, as we turn away from the old, God makes us new creations in Christ.
(23:24):
Our old identity is gone, and it's replaced with a new identity in Him.
And this means both leaving behind the old ways and actively pursuing the good works that God has prepared for us to do.
The question for each of us then is, what do we drop and what do we need to do to follow Jesus?
What do we need to leave behind in the dust where we once were, and where do we need to follow Jesus?
(23:54):
Ecclesia is a church of house churches gathering weekly in Council Bloss Iowa and in homes throughout the week.
We are a Bible-centered church focused on preaching from Scripture and making disciples of Jesus.
You can learn more about our statement of faith and contact a pastor by visiting ecclaseachurches.org.
[MUSIC]
This message is from Galatians chapter 1 verses 11 through 24 and is entitled "Called to be Disciples."
It was originally delivered to Ecclesia churches on Sunday, February 16, 2025.
In this passage, we see the various ways that God used Paul's story with all of his previous self-righteousness,
(00:24):
his sin, his past as a persecutor of Christ, and he uses it for God's glory and for the sake of the gospel.
We can see the way that God moved in the life of Paul, how God was glorified through Paul's response to that movement,
and how the change that was evident in Paul's life is a powerful tool in the hands of God for the sake of his kingdom.
(00:45):
So let's read this passage together, starting with verse 11.
"For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel,
or I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church violently and tried to destroy it,
(01:11):
and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people,
and so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.
But when he who had set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his son to me
in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone,
(01:36):
nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia and I returned again to Damascus.
Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days,
but I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother.
In what I am writing to you before God I do not lie.
(01:59):
Then I went into the regions of Syria and Selecia, and I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.
They only were hearing it said, "He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy, and they glorified God because of me."
(02:21):
So in this passage Paul is sharing his own story and he's talking about him becoming a disciple of Jesus.
And so we're going to talk about what it means to be called as a disciple of Jesus.
And we probably need to start by defining what a disciple is.
So in the first century a disciple was someone who completely devoted themselves to the following and the learning from a teacher or a master, in this case a rabbi.
(02:50):
And this went beyond mere like academic learning and classes.
These disciples would often live with their teacher following their teacher, adopting their lifestyle and their ways of thinking.
Everything about them was formed by this teacher.
And Jesus kind of redefined discipleship in a couple of key ways.
(03:14):
First, he called his disciples to follow him rather than just his teachings.
In Mark 117 he says, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men."
I love the way that Pastor Jason Shepherd says this.
He says, "We can't simply follow the ways of Jesus and be a Christian.
(03:35):
We have to follow Jesus as the way."
There's a difference between just learning the ways that Jesus taught and trying to live according to those ways and actually following Jesus himself as the way, the truth and the life and the only way to God the Father.
Second, we have to repent of our own ways.
(03:58):
We can't keep our old life, our old ways, our old preferences, our old habits and still follow Jesus.
We can't drag those things along with us.
All of these things are submitted to Jesus.
Jesus in Luke 1433 says, "Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple."
(04:19):
If you remember the story of the rich man who came to Jesus and asked, you know, how do I get into heaven?
Jesus said, "Well, first you have to follow all the law," which he knew was impossible to do.
The man naively says, "Oh, of course, I followed all the law," meaning I'm a good Jew.
I followed the law since that's what I was taught to do.
And Jesus says, "Okay, great.
(04:41):
Now sell everything that you have and come follow me."
And the man can't do it.
He can't leave the things that he owns behind in order to follow Jesus because he was wealthy.
That was going to be too painful for him.
Finally, Jesus says at the very end that disciples of his are going to make disciples.
In fact, that's the command he gives them in Matthew 28, 19 through 20.
(05:04):
"Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you."
And so it doesn't end with you because it's not about you.
It's about Jesus and it's about his call to everyone.
So a disciple is going to be actively sharing the gospel and teaching people who respond to the gospel how to follow Jesus.
(05:34):
So a working definition for us this morning is a disciple is someone who personally follows Jesus, not just his teachings.
Who turns from their old sinful life, we call that repenting, and helps other disciples to do the same.
So in the first few verses of our passage today, Paul actually makes another distinction that's helpful as we get into that.
(05:57):
He's setting himself apart not only as a disciple, but as an apostle.
So let's talk about that.
Verse 11, "For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel."
"For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ."
(06:20):
So here Paul is setting himself apart as an apostle and it's important for us to distinguish what that means.
We live in an age today in 2025 of many churches and people that are part of a movement where they claim to be apostles,
which is really something quite new.
This trend of modern self-proclaimed apostles really gained momentum in the late 20th century,
(06:47):
particularly during the 80s and 90s with the rise of a movement called the New Apostolic Reformation, or NAR.
And in this movement, which was really big in Pentecostal and Charismatic circles,
they promote the idea, which is not a biblical idea, that God is somehow now restoring the office of apostle to the modern church.
(07:09):
So they recognize that it ceased with the original apostles, but now they say, "Oh, but now it's coming back."
And there's new apostles in the church that are giving this special anointing.
So despite that being a significant departure from traditional Christian understanding of the office.
So that's something that's happening today.
(07:30):
This sets Paul apart as an apostle.
It's a specific role, which we will define as a disciple of Jesus who received the gospel from Jesus directly,
because that's what Paul says, primarily during his earthly ministry.
In verse 17, he also says, it references the apostles that came before him, talking about the twelve disciples of Jesus.
(07:52):
But he's never going to refer to anyone coming after him.
He's never going to establish new apostles, nor will any of the other disciples.
In fact, he'll say in 1 Corinthians 15, 8, and 9 that he was actually the last of the apostles.
In Ephesians 2, 19 through 20, he writes to the church and says,
"You are no longer strangers and aliens.
(08:14):
You are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets."
Jesus Christ himself being the cornerstone.
So here we are called to be disciples.
We are empowered by the foundational work of the prophets and the apostles to do that, but we don't need to be apostles.
(08:38):
And honestly, this makes me think of a movie from my childhood about the movie Toy Story,
where Buzz just realizes at this point that he's a toy and he's not a real space ranger,
and he's really down about it.
And Woody the cowboy looks at Buzz and he says, "Being a toy is a lot better than being a space ranger,"
because Woody gets that his value isn't tied up in the title, but rather in belonging to Andy.
(09:05):
So there's a little bit of Toy Story theology for you.
The out of line is that you're not an apostle, and that's okay.
You are a loved disciple called by God to make disciples.
And so just to kind of recap, a disciple of Jesus is someone who follows Jesus personally and learns his ways.
Somebody who repents of old ways instead of obeys their own desires,
(09:30):
instead they obey the commands and teachings of Jesus.
And somebody who makes disciples helps other people to come to the knowledge of Christ and to obey him.
That's what it means to be a disciple.
That's what it means to be a Christian.
And this is what Paul was calling people to.
And that's kind of challenging because that's way more involved than the Christianity that I think we've been sold in the modern day.
(09:53):
A Christianity in which we only call ourselves a follower of Christ is not Christianity at all.
And we'll actually talk about that more in our midweek gathering this week.
So how does that happen or come about?
Do we wake up one morning and just decide to choose God?
Well, Paul doesn't think so.
Scripture doesn't teach that.
So let's keep going.
This is verse 13.
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"For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.
And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age and among my people.
So extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.
But when he who had set me apart, that is God,
before I was born and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his son to me,
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in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles."
God is the one to initiate the change.
God is the one to reveal himself to us.
We could get into a discussion about predestination in this passage.
Certainly there's some to be talked about there,
but understanding what Paul is trying to get across is more important.
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God made the first move.
God interrupted Paul's path to destruction.
It is by grace alone that we are saved and not because we had the good sense to seek out God.
He does the same thing today as John wrote in 1 John 419.
"We love because he first loved us."
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This is the perfect, simple illustration of the divine initiative,
God's movement in our salvation and relationship with God.
So those of us who are saved can know that it is purely by the grace of God,
not by any work that we have done and we have nothing to boast about,
but in the work of Christ redeeming us.
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A few more verses here.
Ephesians 2, 8-9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith."
And this is not your own doing.
It is the gift of God, not a result of work, so that no one may boast.
Titus 3, verse 5 says, "He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness,
but according to his own mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit."
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Those of us who have not yet committed your lives to Jesus and been baptized in his name,
God is pursuing you.
He will not compel or force you to respond,
but he will continue to wait with open arms for you to respond.
Let's talk about what that response looks like,
and let's begin with how Paul's life changed, how he turned from his sin and served Jesus instead.
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This is the end of verse 16.
"I did not immediately consult with anyone, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me,
but I went away into Arabia and returned again to Damascus.
Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him for 15 days."
Cephas would be Peter, by the way.
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"But I saw none other of the apostles except James the Lord's brother.
In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie."
Paul was not responding to any social pressure to convert to Christianity.
In fact, the pressure was quite the opposite.
After being founded by Jesus on the road to Damascus, he begins on this path and he does not look back.
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Paul, in this passage, will talk about how he didn't even go to see the other apostles for three years.
Even though he feels less than qualified based on his past, as he will allude to in other passages,
he is going to operate in the fullness of what he was called to do by Jesus as an apostle.
So, as we've already established, we are not called to be apostles.
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Full stop. That's not the message here.
The message is that Paul, when called, had to choose to respond.
The message is that witnessing someone turn from their sin is a miracle.
And if you want to see a miracle, look to people in the church who are dying to old habits,
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old greed, old influences, old lifestyles and are repenting.
Repentance is a miracle.
Repentance is something that is enabled by God for us to abandon and turn away from the old things and turn to Him instead.
So, Paul turns around and from this point on, his life looks entirely different.
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Now, doubtless, he grew in grace.
He grew in his knowledge and understanding of how all Scripture pointed to Jesus,
but there is an unmistakable pivot moment,
because he did not continue in the power and mission of the Jewish leaders to persecute the church.
He did not continue hating followers of Christ and seeking their downfall.
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In fact, his pivot was so strong that he went to a place where he had not spent time before
to get away from the life that he had been in.
So, I think a good question is how might God desire to use our turning from a broken past to glorify Himself?
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How might our repentance serve as a witness to the people who knew or know us best?
We can say, "I was once among the worst of sinners and I have been saved by Jesus, and now I am turning to Him."
That turning is a witness in itself.
So, when you feel less qualified, less than qualified to share the gospel because of your past,
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I want you to see God's perspective here.
Repentance is the call to all believers and the forgiveness of God is complete because of the work of Jesus.
The Psalmist foretells this new solution in Psalm 103 verse 12, and he's talking about that day that Christ will take care of all sin.
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He says, "As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us."
Notice, he's referring to the work of Christ.
He removes our transgressions from us, right?
We might turn to Jesus, but it is Jesus who removes those.
What happens when we repent? We are forgiven, but something else comes to you.
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Acts 319 says, "Repent therefore and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord."
Talking about the Holy Spirit being at work, times of refreshing also aren't just for you because when you become a temple of the Holy Spirit,
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you usher the presence of Christ into the world around you.
Your act of repentance, of turning from who you were, is a witness to the watching world.
So, we have God moving, right? This process of becoming a disciple of Jesus.
We have God moving first. We have us responding to Him through repentance.
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What happens after that? Well, God says, "The new creation happens."
In this ultimate turnabout, for Paul, God uses his past as a persecutor of the church and his life change to glorify himself.
This is verse 21, "Then I went into the regions of Syria and Salisya, and I was still unknown, in person, to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.
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They only were hearing it said, 'He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy, and they glorified God because of me.'"
Look at what they are saying in verse 23. "He who used to is now."
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The dramatic change is a testimony in itself.
Before they respond to the message he is preaching, they actually respond to the change in him that they have witnessed.
They say, "How is this person the same?" And the honest conclusion that they have to come to is that he is not the same.
Because now they are seeing Jesus reflected in him. This transformation into a new creation is powerfully spoken of in Scripture.
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Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come."
The old sinful life has passed away. The new has come in the form of the Holy Spirit.
So what does that look like? What does that look like for us? How is Jesus calling you into a different life?
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What might he want to change in you to reflect this new life that he has called you to?
We are called, just like Paul, out of destruction and into a life of faith.
Out of a life of wickedness and sin and into a life of glorifying God through the work of Jesus Christ.
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And if you can see, there are two questions here. What are you called out of? And what are you called into?
Without the balance of these two questions, we end up with a version of Christianity that, again, isn't Christianity.
If we only talk about what we're called out of, only repenting, we end up just trying to kind of avoid all of the old things.
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Following Jesus starts to feel like we're just trying to avoid the old and hold on for Jesus to return. That's not it.
The call is to get busy. Every old thing forsaken makes room for new, holy work.
Paul writes in Ephesians 2.10, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
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which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Every sin that we turn from creates a space in our lives for the good works that God has already prepared for us to do."
How exciting is that? So we can't just continue to step out of the old. We have to actually step in to something new, right?
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At the same time, we can't forget that repentance. We can't do the only called into. When we try to do it that way,
we're only trying to step into what is new while clinging to every old priority practice and habit.
That's not what Scripture teaches. It says, "No, forsake the old life and everything that doesn't lead you into being a disciple of Jesus."
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Paul talks about this in Colossians 3.9-10. He says, "Don't lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices
and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator."
So this is an ongoing process. But it has two parts where we are forsaking the old
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and we are taking part of the good works that Christ has called us into.
We believe that while salvation is instantaneous, the work of being made holy called sanctification is ongoing.
So the question is now, what is the next step of obedience that you need to take?
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Jesus called his disciples to drop their nets and follow. So what's the one thing that you need to drop?
Think about that today. What is one thing that you need to drop?
And what's one thing or area where you need to step into the obedience of following Jesus into the good work of being a disciple of Christ?
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So as we close up today, we've seen that God calls us into a completely new life as a disciple through Jesus Christ.
First, God is the initiator of our salvation. He calls us by His grace, just as He called Paul.
None of us can boast about finding God. He found us. He pursues us. He makes the first move.
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And then we're called to respond with genuine repentance.
Repentance, like Paul, this means a complete turnaround in our lives.
Repentance isn't just a feeling of being sorry. It's actively turning away from our old life and turning towards Christ.
I've had this conversation with some of my children, even in the last week, that when you hurt somebody, you can't just yell, "I'm sorry," and run away.
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You have to apologize, but then you have to repent. You have to turn away from doing that so that you don't do it again a minute later.
And that change of turning away from our old life and turning towards Christ is a powerful witness to others.
And then finally, as we turn away from the old, God makes us new creations in Christ.
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Our old identity is gone, and it's replaced with a new identity in Him.
And this means both leaving behind the old ways and actively pursuing the good works that God has prepared for us to do.
The question for each of us then is, what do we drop and what do we need to do to follow Jesus?
What do we need to leave behind in the dust where we once were, and where do we need to follow Jesus?
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Ecclesia is a church of house churches gathering weekly in Council Bloss Iowa and in homes throughout the week.
We are a Bible-centered church focused on preaching from Scripture and making disciples of Jesus.
You can learn more about our statement of faith and contact a pastor by visiting ecclaseachurches.org.
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