Converted by the Resurrection
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This evening's scripture reading is from Acts 9, verses 1 through 19. Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus so that if he found any there who belonged to the way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.

He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?' "'Who are you, Lord?' Saul asked. "'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,' he replied. "'Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.' The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless. They heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes, he could see nothing."

So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind and did not eat or drink anything. In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, Ananias, yes Lord, he answered. The Lord told him, go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying.

In a vision, he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight. Lord, Ananias answered, I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priest to arrest all who call on your name. But the Lord said to Ananias, Go, this man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel.

I will show him how much he must suffer for my name. Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here, has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again.

He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength. This is the word of the Lord. The book of Acts tells us that when Christianity was at its most potent, its most vital, it grew through conversion. It grew through conversion. In other words, Christianity originally was never understood as a set of teachings or a set of beliefs or ethics that one took up.

Christianity was a power that took you up. Christianity was a power that converted. That means completely turned you inside out, transformed you from the inside. Now, the classic example of this is in front of you. It's the conversion of Paul. Paul, we know, was an abusive, violent zealot.

And we know that abusive, violent zealots, whether they're religious or anti-religious or liberal or conservative, whatever, inside, they are deeply unhappy and restless. But after his conversion, here's what we read in one of his writings, Philippians 4. Paul says, I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or want.

See, from someone who is clearly, deeply unhappy and restless into someone who's utterly unflappable, completely poised, absolutely content. How did that happen? Conversion. A radical, deep conversion.

Now, when we look at Paul's case, we've been looking at various cases of conversion in the book of Acts. When we look at Paul's case, there is a problem right away. And the problem is that it's so dramatic. It's so famous, the light, the voice. And there is a danger in getting distracted by the peripherals, the externals, the dramatics. And look at this and say, wow, nothing like this ever happened to me. I never had a Damascus Road experience. But don't forget, if you've been coming for a few nights, for a few weeks, you know this.

If Luke had only given us St. Paul's conversion, then we might believe, maybe, that this is the paradigm in all its particulars for every other Christian conversion. But Luke gives us a whole lot of cases, many of which had no lights, like last week, the African finance minister, or remember Lydia in Acts 16? No miracles, no visions, just a Bible study.

So what Luke is actually saying to us is when he gives us these cases, is he's actually inviting us to look at what's common to them all, what's core to them all. And there's three things in this passage that I'd like to point out that are always involved in every conversion. An untamed God, a stubborn fact, and a radical relationship. An untamed God, Lord, who are you? A stubborn fact, I am Jesus.

and a radical relationship whom you're persecuting. And the reason we're looking at these three things is because everybody in this room needs to know about conversion. You need to know whether you are converted. Some of you need to know how to be converted. Some of you need to know how to help somebody else be converted because it looks like one of your friends is sort of going through it and you wonder, now wait a minute, what's supposed to be happening here? And all of us need to know how to live deeply converted lives.

And we will learn that if we look at these three things. First of all, the first thing we've learned that is always involved in conversion is an untamed God. Now, what do I mean by an untamed God? Well, up to this point, Paul had always pretty... He understood, he thought he knew what God was like and what he wasn't like. Paul had a very, very clear view of what God was like and what God was not like. So, for example, God could not become...

A human being. So all this stuff about what Jesus claims couldn't be true. And not only that, Paul had heard Stephen's final speech before he was executed. And he heard Stephen say that the temple and the tabernacle and the priesthood and the sacrificial system was all going to be made obsolete. And Paul says, well, God would never do that. There'd be whole books of the Bible that would be absolutely just abrogated and cast aside. God would never do that. So he had an understanding of who God was. In other words, Paul believed in a God that he wanted to believe in.

A God that fit all of his sensibilities, who fit all of his views. He believed in the God he wanted to exist. And then suddenly he met a God that had his own reality. Not a reality that Paul had created. His own reality. Knocked him to the ground. And that's the reason why Paul does not say, Lord, this is what you should be. Rather, Paul says, who are you? In New York City, people are always saying something like this. I believe in a God who

who accepts everyone no matter what they believe. I believe in a God who accepts everyone no matter what they believe. Now, maybe some of you believe this too. Well, then let me ask you a question. Why do you believe God is like that rather than like something else? Why do you believe God is like that rather than something else? And I think the only answer to that question is, I believe God is like that because I want to believe God is like that. You've created the God. You've designed the God. You've created a God that is exactly the way you want God to be.

fits in your views perfectly. And maybe that gets rid of a few problems, but it can never convert you. It can never change you. It can never turn you from an unhappy person into a happy person, from a restless person into a person who's utterly content. It can't change you at a deep level. Why not? Well, think. Let's imagine. Think about the group of people, and it's a pretty big group in the world, of people who are deeply

unsure of their own worth. People who struggle with feelings of inadequacy. What's going to convert them into people with poise? What's going to convert them into people with no self-doubts at all? Like what happened to Paul. What's going to convert them? Believing in a God who they just think loves everyone? See, 1 John 3.20, classic verse, says this, when our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts. Isn't that wonderful?

Isn't that wonderful? When our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts. But how can your God overcome the deep conviction of your heart that you're worthless if you know your heart created him? You see, the only God that can overcome that feeling of worthlessness, that come in and say, you feel guilty, you're not guilty. You feel worthless, you're not worthless. The only God that can overcome your heart would be a God that's not the product of your heart.

But what if you believe in a God and you know you believe in a God? The God that you believe in is a God that is exactly the way you want to believe. You say, well, I don't like, I was raised in a church that believed this and I see what the Bible says, but I like to believe in a God. Okay, so you've created a God that you want to believe in. That God will never be able to change you because he's the product of you. He'll never be able to change your heart. He's the product of your heart. The deepest need of your heart is for a God who is not the product of your heart's deepest needs.

The deepest need of your heart is for a God who is not the product of your deepest needs. Well, you say, how could I get a God like that? Well, how did Paul get it? I'll tell you how he got it. Paul sought the God of the Bible. Now, because Paul sought the God of the Bible, for a good long period of time, he didn't have the God of the Bible. I mean, in other words, there were all sorts of things in the Bible that God said about the Messiah that Paul had filtered out because he didn't want to believe it.

So God had, pardon me, Saul had a God, Paul had a God who he'd made up himself. But because he was after the biblical God, eventually that God broke through. And I want you to know that here's where conversion starts. You may have believed in God all of your life, but you only get converted when you start to realize you're dealing with a God who is there, a God who is there and he's not the way you want him to be. He is the way he is.

You only can get converted and changed when you begin to sense that you're dealing with a God who is not just the way you want him to be, that there's some scary things about him. There's some disturbing things about him. There's some things that he says that you have trouble accepting until you've got a God like that. You don't have a real God. You don't certainly don't have a God that can change your heart. You've got, you've got a cardboard guy. Who's the product of your heart. If you're in a relationship with a God,

Pardon me, let's sit for a minute. If you're in a relationship with a person who never says anything against you, never contradicts you, never offends you, never talks back to you, you don't really have a personal relationship with that person for whatever reason he or she is hiding his or her true self. It's not a personal relationship. It's something else.

And I've had people say to me, well, I see the Bible and I see in the Bible God says this and he says that and he does this and he does that, but I can't accept that. All right, you can't accept that God. Where do you have with your God, where does your God tell you things you don't want to hear? Where does your God tell you and do things that you don't want to accept? Unless you've got a God who does that at some point, you don't have a real God and you'll never be converted. You'll never be changed. You'll never be better than you are today.

Isn't that a horrible thought? Because unless you have a God that you allow to tell you things you don't want to be true, you'll never be changed when he tells you things that are too good to be true. Like he forgives you, like you're going to be resurrected, like he's going to adopt you. See that? Unless you've got a God who tells you things you don't want to be true, you'll never have a God who will change you by telling you things that are too good to be true.

So where do you get that God? You have to go to find him in the Bible. Why? When you make the Bible, and I'll just, let me be personal for a second. When I, over the years, this is how it works. If you say, I trust the Bible and I'm seeking the God of the Bible. I'm constantly, I'm still finding places where God says to me things that I don't like, but I have to accept and takes two or three years before I start to get it. Oh, okay. So that's why. But that converts me. That changes me.

That's the only way I know how. The profoundest need of your heart is for a God who's not the product of your heart's profoundest needs. And therefore, an untamed God, what C.S. Lewis calls an untamed lion. God is not a tame lion. That's the beginning of conversion, when you know you've got that. When you start to realize it really doesn't matter so much what you think about him. It matters what he thinks about you. So the first element in conversion is

an untamed God. The second element in conversion is a stubborn fact. Who are you, Lord? Saul asked. I am Jesus. Now, what is this fact? You see, Paul is not having a subjective experience. He's not having a vision in his head. There's every indication that

Every effort is made by Luke, the author of Acts, to show you that Paul's conversion is not a response to a subjective experience in his head, but his conversion is an experience to a stubborn fact, an objective historical reality. It's the fact of the risen Christ. Now, this comes out in a whole lot of ways. First of all, notice it says in verse 7, it says, "...the men traveling with Saul stood there speechless. They heard the sound."

But they didn't see anyone. Now, in Acts 22, when Paul recounts his conversion experience, he mentions that the people who were with him saw the light but couldn't perceive a figure inside the light like he could. And they heard the sound, but they couldn't discern words in the sound like he could. But what is that telling us? This is not something in his head. This is something that really happened, an objective, physical, historical reality. Not only that, he goes blind. Why does he go blind? Because of the light. Why?

Well, it would therefore have to be a physical light. It wasn't in his head. It was a physical light that hit his physical eyes. And Paul later on explains exactly what happened in this amazing and important passage. In 1 Corinthians 15, he says, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, that Christ died for our sins, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and he appeared to Peter and then to the twelve.

After that, he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. And then he appeared to James and to all the apostles. And last of all, he appeared to me as to one untimely born. For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. Now, what is Paul saying? What converted him was the knowledge of

that Jesus Christ was physically, bodily raised from the dead. If you look at all the other conversion cases in the book of Acts, this is the only one, this is the only conversion that comes through being a witness to the physical resurrection of Christ. But all the other conversions come through believing the witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the kernel. What is not

The Christian conversion is not a response to an experience, but the conversion experience is a response to a resolute, unyielding, stubborn historical fact that Jesus Christ was raised physically from the dead and hundreds and hundreds of people besides Paul saw him, talked to him over and over again, over a period of days, ate with him, watched him eat, touched him, put fingers through the holes in his hands.

This happened, and when Paul realized it happened, it converted him. Now, you know, by the way, when he says, this is the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15, and he makes a list of the witnesses, why does he say, why does he give the evidence of the resurrection as part of the gospel? Because it is. This is what saves you. Let me show you how this works. When Paul...

met Jesus on the road to Damascus, he had a lot of objections, just like you and I do. Now, the average person in New York have a different set. A lot of people would say things like this. Well, I just can't believe in Christianity when I look at the church and I see all the terrible things that have been done by the church, the outrageous injustices, all the things that the church has done over the years.

I can't believe in Christianity when I see what the church did. And also, then the Bible says God is very good and loving, but I can't understand why God allows so much evil and suffering in the world. And the Bible says Jesus is the only way. Well, what about all the people who die who've never heard about Jesus? So you have all these questions, right? And you say...

uh, how can I believe in Christianity with all these problems? Well, Paul had a set of problems. They were different, but they were every bit as severe. For example, he was a Jew. So one of the first problems that comes up is he's read the Bible. Every page, every page of the Bible says there's one God, only one God, only one God, only one God. Here's Jesus. He's God. And he's talking to the father. So who's that up there? And who's, wait a minute.

How could Jesus be God if there's only one God? The Bible says there's only one God. Well, that Christianity can't be true, right? But what happens on the road to Damascus? Does Jesus say, Saul, Saul, let me explain the Trinity to you. There's one God, but there's three persons in one God. And you know, no, he doesn't. And yet Paul's converted. Why? Here's why.

Paul doesn't understand how, doesn't understand the Trinity, doesn't understand that. Doesn't understand how God could let go of the temple and the tabernacle and the sacrificial system as we mentioned and just abrogate whole parts of the scripture. He can't understand that. But there's Jesus alive. And so guess what?

It must be true. I don't understand the Trinity. I don't understand. It must be true. If he's alive, there's only one thing to say. If he's standing there in front of me, then I've got all these problems, but I guess there's answers to them. I don't know what the answers are, but all I know is if he's standing there in front of me, the only thing to say is, what would you have me do, Lord? He doesn't say, well, I can't believe in Jesus because of the, I don't understand this doctrine of the Trinity, but there he is. So there must be an answer.

Paul was converted. He didn't have any of the other answers. Why was he converted? Because if Jesus is the Son of God, raised from the dead, physically raised from the dead, then he must be true. And the minute that Paul understood that he was raised from the dead, he lost control of his life. He got converted. He didn't belong to himself anymore. How can we understand the meaning of life's milestones through the lens of the gospel?

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And so I can't believe in Christianity. Look at all the terrible things the church has done. Look at all the evil and suffering in the world. What about all the people who've never heard about Christ? Let me ask you a question. Was Jesus raised from the dead? Because if he was, then I don't know about those things. Those are important. I'm not saying they're insignificant, but so what? If he was raised from the dead, there he is. You've got to believe in him. You've got to submit to him. But if he wasn't, you've got a problem.

And you've got a big problem. Because if you say, well, I don't believe in the resurrection, then you must come up. Now, we spent time on this earlier, so I won't go into too much detail. The resurrection is a stubborn fact, which is, if you don't believe in Christianity, if you don't believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus, then you must, if you have any intellectual integrity, you can't just walk away from it. You must come up with a historically possible alternate explanation for how the Christian church started.

When Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, 500 people saw Jesus Christ all at once, most of them are still alive. And he wrote that, we all know, about 32 years after the death of Jesus. When you write that in a public document, that soon...

He didn't write this 80 years later, 100 years later. Then that could be a legend that just came up. But legends can't develop that fast. 32 years. Just to let you know, since some of you are very young and some of you think 32 years does sound like a long time, let me just tell you something. A month ago, a woman who I had gone to college with

Came to church in the morning and I met her between the two services. She came forward and she said, you remember me? Of course, I hadn't seen her in many years. And we went to college together and I graduated from college 32 years ago. And she reminded me of a trip that eight of us took in a van. And there was an accident and the van broke down.

And we were towed all the way home. And it took like nine hours to get home. And we remember it was really actually a great trip because the eight of us sat in that van being towed home, which was illegal. But we were college students, so we were stupid. And...

And we talked and we talked. In fact, it was a very memorable time. In fact, she remembers something that we talked about that night. And I remember it too. And she reminded me of it and I remembered it too. Now, here's the point. 32 years ago, what if somebody suddenly said, I was in the van that night and several people were killed in the accident? Well, you can't get away with making up a story like that because we were all there. 32 years later, everybody is still alive. Now, some of us are bald, but we were all still here. Right?

And as a result, you can't make up a legend about an event like that yet. A hundred years from now, sure, but not now. When Paul said there are 500 people at once that saw the risen Christ, talked to him, saw him at once, he couldn't have said that unless that actually was true. There were 500 people at that very moment in Jerusalem. Now, do you don't believe in the resurrection of Christ? Because you don't want to lose control of your life? I can understand. But how do you explain that?

Well, you say, maybe it was a hallucination. People don't have hallucinations in groups, especially not that big. Well, maybe it was a conspiracy, but why would people die for a hoax? And you begin to realize that coming up with a historically possible alternate explanation for why hundreds of people said they saw Jesus Christ risen from the dead, even though there was nothing in their worldview that would prepare them for that. You come up with an explanation, and you begin to realize as you try that you're really not sifting the evidence, you're avoiding the evidence.

Do you see the stubborn fact of the resurrection? It will convert you if you listen to the evidence. So the second thing that we always see involved in Christian conversions is not just a kind of mystical experience, but a confrontation with the historical fact of the resurrection.

If that's true, then it doesn't matter whether Christianity fits you or whether it works for you or whether you've got all these problems or not. I'm not saying those aren't important, but the point is there he is. And if he's there, just like Paul, even though he had none of the answers to any of his questions, he had to say, what would you have me do, Lord? I no longer am in charge of my life. I give up the right to self-determination because if you're raised from the dead, then I have to. But thirdly,

The third thing that's always involved in conversion is not just a tame God, an untamed God, and a stubborn fact, but it's a radical new relationship. Because when Saul says, Paul says, who are you, Lord? And he says, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, whom you are persecuting. This is the bombshell of the whole passage. It's, in fact, it looks like a glitch, like, wait a minute, that must be a mistake. But it's said twice, just to make sure we don't miss it.

Because when he first speaks, Jesus says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting them? He doesn't say that. And I'm sure that's the reason why Paul probably said, who are you, Lord? Because I think this is what's really happening. This glorious figure knocks him off of his feet with its effulgence and glory. Why are you persecuting me? And what is Paul saying? He's saying, I wasn't

How could I be persecuting you? I was on my way to persecute them. I wasn't planning on persecuting anybody quite so bright. In other words, I mean, basically Paul is saying in his most respectful way, what are you talking about? I'm persecuting them. Who are you? How could I be persecuting anyone like you? Whoever you are. Well, why did Jesus say, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting them?

Why didn't he say that? Why did he say, you are persecuting me? Because Jesus Christ is saying something that seared itself into the center of Paul's consciousness. And once he grabbed hold of it, it converted him. In fact, he spent the rest of his life spinning it out. And the more he spun it out, the more it converted him. What Jesus Christ is saying is, I have such an intimate, radical union and solidarity with my people. I have a relationship of such close solidarity with

That whatever is true of them is true of me. Whatever is true of me is true of them. They are in me. I am in them. I am not just their example. They are in me. We are in union. And see, Paul, this ends up, the first thing that Paul ever heard from Jesus Christ became the basics. In some ways, it's the theme of everything he ever wrote afterwards.

There's all these odd statements. For example, in Romans 6, he says, you know when Jesus Christ died? You died with him. We died with Christ. We were buried with Christ. What?

And then in Ephesians 2, 6, something even more astounding. It says, you know, when Jesus Christ was risen and he was raised from the dead and he was seated in the right hand at the right hand of God, we were raised with him and we were seated with him. Not present tense, not future tense, not someday we will be raised with him and someday we have been raised. We have been seated in the heavenly places. What in the world is Paul talking about? Paul got it. It took him years and years to get it.

What does it mean to be a Christian? It means to be in union with him. So that when Jesus died for sins, if you believe in him, God treats you as if you had paid the penalty for your sins thoroughly, just like Jesus did. And when Jesus is raised to a place of honor, if you believe in him, God treats you as if you had accomplished everything Jesus had accomplished. He loves you as if you were as beautiful as Jesus. He rewards you as if you were as great as Jesus.

That's it. And you say, how could that be? Well, you know, it's a union. We actually have some analogies. I was reading not too long ago an article about a woman who had become very rich and she had worked very hard to become very rich. And she had risked everything and she'd been creative. She'd worked like crazy to become very rich. She was worth $100 million, something like that. And then she adopted a child. Get what? The minute she adopted that child, even though that child had never lifted a finger, the child became rich.

The minute she was adopted, she was just as rich as the mother. She was worth $100 million. Not actually, but virtually and eventually. And it's exactly like that. When we believe in Christ, we're united with him so that what he has accomplished is imputed to us and becomes ours. It's a gift. This is the reason why. Now listen, this is the reason why David Martyn Lloyd-Jones said,

who was a great pastor in London for many years, had a little diagnostic question he used to ask people to figure out where they were spiritually. And he used to look at them and he used to say, let me ask you a question. Are you a Christian? And the person would say, well, I don't know. Well, no, no. Are you a Christian today? And if the person said, well, I'm trying, Dr. Lloyd-Jones knew the person didn't understand the first principle about what it meant to be a Christian. In fact, I think he would go so far as to say, you couldn't be converted and say that. Why?

Because when you say, I want to be with God and you start to clean up your life so that God will bless you and so that you're good enough for God, you have left the passage. You have left the road that leads to conversion. Here's the road that leads to conversion. Here's where the penny drops. Here's where you move from just being a nice person or religious person or a moral person or any religious person to becoming a Christian. When you realize Christianity is not achieved, it's received. And when you realize that, that when I believe in him, what's true of him is true of me.

That will convert you. Now let me give you three killer apps. You know what a killer app is? That's a Silicon Valley term for the next lucrative new software program. But let me give you three great applications of this passage. First of all, do you understand when Jesus says, why are you persecuting me? Do you understand that I am so present in my people? My people are so present in me that what is true of them is true of me. First of all, do you understand the honor of that?

Why was Paul finally healed of that need for respect? Look, you're not persecutors, not people in New York, but I've never seen a place more filled with people who are losing sleep at night because they're being snubbed. They're not getting respect. They're not being noticed. They're not good enough. How did Paul get to the place where he was able to say, I don't care what you think. This is first Corinthians four. I don't even care what I think.

All that I care about is what God thinks of me. And in Christ, I am what he is to the Father, an absolute beauty.

You know, the Bible says that Jesus is a high priest, our high priest. And we say, well, that's an interesting idea, but you know, it doesn't really connect to us, probably because we weren't in the tabernacle or the temple. If we had been in the worship, we would know one thing, and that is that when the high priest went in to pray to God, he wore a breastplate. And on the breastplate were 12 beautiful, precious stones, and over every one of the stones was engraved one of the names of the tribe of Israel, so that the high priest knew

had engraved over his heart the names of the people of God that he bore before the Lord. If Jesus is our high priest, in some way, this is what this metaphor is getting across, your name, when you believe in him, is engraved over his heart, and he bears your name before the Father. And when the Father beholds you in Christ, he sees a gem. He sees an absolute beauty.

And Paul lived in exhilarated consciousness of that. And so who cares what people think of me? Who cares if I'm snubbed? And who cares if I'm noticed? It doesn't matter what you think. It doesn't matter what I think. I'm not subject to ups and downs anymore. Who cares what anybody thinks about me? I have the opinion. I am treasured by the only one whose opinion matters. Who cares if I have the disdain of the serfs when I have the love of the king?

You know, I don't know if they're going to do this. The last of the three Lord of the Rings movies about to come out. And I don't know what they're going to put in. You know, they leave things out of the book and they put certain things in and they change a few things. And I don't know if this will be in the last movie, but it's in the book. And if it is in the last movie, I want you to remember this sermon. Because one of my favorite things in the book is at the very end, the returning king, you know, the true king has come back and he's got it all. He's got the lineage. He's got the royal line. He's got the sword. He's got the stature.

He's got the, the, uh, the size, he's got the battle skills and he has conquered. He has conquered. And so they come to the field of Kermalan was a place where he's going to be honored. And there's a throne set up and there's banners everywhere and all the roads lead to the throne. And there's the crowd, the host has come to see, and there's a feasting that's going on. And then at the key moment, the King steps off of his throne, the returning King,

and he grabs the two little hobbits. He grabs Frodo and Sam Gamgee and puts them on the throne. Of course, they both fit. And he turns and he says to the host, praise them with great praise. And they do. That's what Jesus is doing in some cosmic way. Do you get that? Paul got it. And once he got that, it converted him. And I'll tell you something, it will convert you. He spent the rest of his life spinning it out and it converted him more deeply and more deeply and more deeply.

Why would you ever feel poor again when you know you've got the only wealth that's real? Why would you ever care about what people say about you when you know that your charges against you have been dismissed by the only judge that counts? When God beholds you in Christ, he sees an absolute beauty. Do you know the honor of being a Christian? Secondly,

When Jesus Christ says, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? He's not just saying what's true of me is true of them. He's also saying what hurts them hurts me. And that's the second amazing killer app I would like to share with you. When the resurrected Lord says, I am still experiencing the suffering of my people. We have an incredible resource for suffering. A lot of you, I know, are going through some terrible things. And when you go through some terrible things, it's natural to say,

How do I know he cares? How could I know he cares? How could he care if I'm going through all this? Only Christianity, and we just said this three weeks ago, so I won't go very long on this. Only Christianity even claims that God has suffered. Only Christianity gives you a God.

who knows what it's like to lose a son. Only Christianity gives you a God who's been tortured. Only Christianity gives you a God who's suffered, who's been rejected, who's died. Only Christianity gives you a God who's actually on the cross, looked to heaven and said, why? Why? Of course he cares. Are you kidding? Even in heaven, he's hurt when you're hurt. Persecute them, he's persecuted me. Stab them, you stab me. Hurt them, you hurt me. If they're weeping, I'm weeping.

Of course he cares. There is no other religion even that makes a claim like that, that God has so enmeshed himself in our needs and so bound his heart to our heart that he suffers when we suffer. There it is. That's one resource, but it's not the only resource. The other resource is this. This is the resurrected Lord saying, he hurts for you. And you know what this means? The resurrection, the resurrection...

The resurrection is a teaching that completely, completely defeats the whole idea of suffering. People say, well, why is all this suffering happening? I don't know why the particular suffering is happening, but I know this. When I had a nightmare that my family was dead and then I woke up and saw they weren't, the nightmare only enhanced my joy and my family, remember? The doctrine, the Christian doctrine of the resurrection is not just that when we're all raised from the dead and when the whole world is renewed, we're not just going to heaven,

The world is going to be renewed. So the Christian doctrine of resurrection is not just that the suffering is going to be eliminated or that suffering is going to have a consolation. Don't you realize what this means? On the field of Cormoran, Sam Gamgee said, I thought you were dead. I thought I was dead. Is everything sad going to come untrue? Is everything sad going to come untrue?

The doctrine of the resurrection engulfs suffering. It doesn't just end suffering. It doesn't even just console you for suffering. The doctrine of the resurrection engulfs suffering because what it says is everything sad is going to come untrue. All the worst things that have ever happened are going to become a nightmare. The resurrection will make all things a nightmare, which means the worst suffering that's ever happened to you will only make your eventual joy infinitely greater for it having happened. That's the defeat of suffering. It's not just ending it, not just consoling you for it.

It's engulfing the sufferings. The suffering is taken up into the glory and it makes it vastly better. That's defeating suffering. When the resurrected Lord says, I have come into your suffering so that you will come into my glory. You've got a defeater for suffering in your life. One last thing. And it really is the last thing. Jesus identifies with the church so much that he says, when you hurt them, you hurt me. He identifies the church. Now I want you to know that's amazing.

We don't want to, it doesn't matter what church you identify with right now, you're embarrassed. If you're Baptist, there's things to be embarrassed about by Baptist. If you're Presbyterian, there's things to be embarrassed. If you're Episcopalian, there's things to be embarrassed. It doesn't matter what your church is. So let's just not belong to any church, okay? Let's not identify with any church. It's just humiliating. If Jesus wasn't afraid to be humiliated, if Jesus wasn't above identifying with the church, then you shouldn't either.

We need to be deeply involved with the church. Why? Because Jesus says, I am present in my people. So much so that what happens to them happens to me. And if Jesus is present with his people, you need to be present with his people. You need to be deeply committed to the church. You need to be deeply enmeshed participating in the church. Do you want to be converted? Do you want to have a more converted life? Have an untamed God through the Bible. Confront the stubborn fact of the resurrection.

and spin out the implications of when Jesus Christ says, you are in me and I am in you, and that is life, and you'll be converted. Let us pray. Thank you, Father, for helping us understand what it means to have our lives turned inside out by the truths of the gospel, and we've seen some of those truths now, and we ask that you would help us to either become converted for the first time or more deeply converted because we have spent this time

considering what you did in the life of Paul. Do that in our lives. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thanks for listening to today's teaching. We trust you were encouraged by it and that it gives you new insight into how you can apply God's word to your life each day. You can find more resources from Tim Keller at gospelandlife.com. Just subscribe to the Gospel and Life newsletter to receive free articles, sermons, devotionals, and other valuable resources. Again, it's all at gospelandlife.com. We also invite you to stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter.

This month's sermons were recorded in 2003. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.