Believe is:

1
Believe is

• AWARE of information
• ACKNOWLEDGE as true
• ACCEPT with commitment

2
Acts 758 NASB

• When they had driven him out of the city, they
  began stoning him and the witnesses laid aside
  their robes at the feet of a young man named
  Saul.

3
Acts 81 NASB
Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to
death And on that day a great persecution began
against the church in Jerusalem,
4
Acts 83 NASB
But Saul began ravaging the church, entering
house after house, and dragging off men and
women, he would put them in prison.
5
Ravaging/to destroy

• ??µa???µa?
• lumainomai

To treat disgracefully, to injure severely,
destroy, damage, ruin, to imperil, to devastate,
The only occurrence in the New Testament is at
Acts 83 where the fierce and relentless nature
of the persecution is depicted.
6
Galatians 113-14 NASB

• For you have heard of my former manner of life
  in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of
  God beyond measure and tried to destroy it and I
  was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my
  contemporaries among my countrymen, being more
  extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions.

7
Philippians 36 NASB

• as to zeal, a persecutor of the church as to
  the righteousness which is in the Law, found
  blameless.

8
Philippians 34-5 NASB

• although I myself might have confidence even in
  the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put
  confidence in the flesh, I far more circumcised
  the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the
  tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews as to the
  Law, a Pharisee

9
132 Miles
10

• Why was Saul persecuting the church?

11

• What did you think of Christians before you
  became one?

12
Acts 2613 NASB

• at midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from
  heaven, brighter than the sun, shining all around
  me and those who were journeying with me.

13

14
Acts 2614 NASB

• And when we had all fallen to the ground, I
  heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect,
  'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is
  hard for you to kick against the goads.

15
Acts 2614 NASB

• And when we had all fallen to the ground, I
  heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect,
  'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is
  hard for you to kick against the goads.

16
Acts 229 NASB

• And those who were with me saw the light, to be
  sure, but did not understand the voice of the One
  who was speaking to me.

17

• In 97 Luke recorded that the men who traveled
  with Saul . . . heard the sound (phones), but in
  229 Luke wrote that they did not understand the
  voice (phonen). Literally, that clause in 229
  may be translated, They did not hear the sound.
  The NIV correctly translates the verse, because
  the verb to hear with the genitive

18

• case is employed in 97, and the accusative is
  used in 229. So the travelers with Saul heard
  the sound (97) but did not understand what
  Christ said (229).
• Bible Knowledge Commentary

19
I Corinthians 158-9 NASB

• and last of all, as to one untimely born, He
  appeared to me also. For I am the least of the
  apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle,
  because I persecuted the church of God.

20
Acts 2210a NASB

• And I said, 'What shall I do, Lord?

21
Conversion

• The Latin word conversio, translating the Greek
  metanoia, literally means "going the other way."
  The convert, therefore, is expected to renounce
  sin and personally commit to a life of
  righteousness as defined and exemplified by Saul
  of Tarsus. In some Protestant traditions, this is
  called "accepting Christ as one's Savior and
  following him as Lord."

22
Conversion

• Other words used to describe conversion are
• transformation,
• metamorphosis,
• change,
• new birth, regeneration,
  create anew.

23

• Saul meets Jesus and is changed forever.

24

• I gave in and admitted that God was God and
  knelt and prayed perhaps, that night, the most
  dejected and reluctant convert in all England.
• C.S. Lewis

25

26

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28
Galatians 115-16 NASB

• But when God, who had set me apart even from my
  mother's womb and called me through His grace,
  was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I
  might preach Him among the Gentiles.

29
Suffer

• p?s??
• pascho

To suffer, to be acted on, is found 42 times in
the New Testament. Most of the references are to
the sufferings of Christ Himself and to the
sufferings of Christians for His sake.
30
2 Corinthians 1123-28 NASB

• Are they servants of Christ?--I speak as if
  insane--I more so in far more labors, in far
  more imprisonments, beaten times without number,
  often in danger of death. Five times I received
  from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I
  was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three
  times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have
  spent in the deep. I have been on frequent
  journeys, in dangers from

31
2 Corinthians 1123-28 cont.

• rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my
  countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in
  the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on
  the sea, dangers among false brethren I have
  been in labor and hardship, through many
  sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often
  without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from
  such external things, there is the daily pressure
  on me of concern for all the churches.

32
Scales

• ?ep??
• lepis

From verb to peel, a scale of a fish or
crocodile, or egg shell, shell of a nut or skin
of an onion. Only used in this verse in the New
Testament
33
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34
What Christ-Followers are called in this passage

• Verse 1 Disciples of the Lord
• Verse 2 The Way
• Verse 13 Saints
• Verse 4 ME

35

• Ananias obeys Jesus
• and is used for eternity.

36

• Next to the incarnation and resurrection of
  Jesus, the conversion of Saul of Tarsus is
  probably the most outstanding event in the entire
  New Testament.

37

• God converts us, so He can change us forever and
  use us for eternity.

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